Kyle's secret and a world ending struggle
by Nightshade McArthur
Summary: rated M for languange, violence and just in case. most of the characters within are the property of marvel, four leaf studios or kakifly, any others are of my own creation. Kudos are in order to Chrono180 for the code-name of one of the characters within. Survivor is his Idea I just used it because I couldnt think of anything better :/ terrible summary. please R&R your thoughts.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter one - first day at school**

_I can't believe its our first day at a Japanese high school, heck I still can't believe Mum & Dad decided to move here. Scotland was their home since long before me and Katie were even born. _Deep in thought as I was, I didn't notice Kaitlyn trying to get my attention; "Oi, Onee-chan" with language skills like hers, it isn't surprising that she picked up the Japanese language so easily, anyone would think she was a local, certainly no-one would accuse her of only having been here since December.

"Sorry sis, guess I was in my own little world, what were you saying?"

"I said; we just walked past your class, if you wanted to go check it out & meet up later for lunch or something."

"Oh, right... Sure see you at the cafeteria for lunch. Later" I waved farewell to my sister as I entered my new classroom, I sit at the desk in the back corner, by the window so I could see my entire surroundings, as well as keep track of the students who enter. As I scan the room I notice a girl sitting in the corner opposite mine, I say girl, but to describe her as a 'girl' is a genuine understatement, she is by far the most... Beautiful woman I've ever seen. Then just as I was moping over my dismal chances with her, she turned, saw me looking at her, blushed and turned away to hide in her book. To be perfectly honest I can understand why, even though it isn't necessary in the slightest; the entire right side of her face is burnt._ She must have been bullied pretty bad for that in middle school. _I think to myself. _Anyone tries that on her here they're in for a rude awakening._ I'm a little surprised at how protective I am of this girl, for all I know she's a total delinquent, although I highly doubt that... _Maybe I should go introduce myself, seeing as we're the only ones here. _I stand and walk towards her.

"Sumimasen" I say to her softly. _God I hope I said that right_ I think as I await her reply.

"H-hai?" her reply is so quiet that I barely hear it.

"U-um, I just... I wanted to introduce myself, I'm new here and the only student I know here is my sister in first year" I say this last part with a small grin, and am pleased to see her return it with one of her own, forced though it may seem. "I'm Kyle, Kyle McArthur." _Why are my palms sweaty, surely I can't be that nervous._  
"I-I'm Hanako... Ikezawa, but if you were hoping to make many friends here, you should probably keep your distance from me, I'm sort of... unpopular." She says this with a look akin to shame on her face, her words lowering in volume with every syllable, making it even harder to hear her, good thing my hearing's so good. _Guess my theory was right._  
"I prefer to make my own judgement about people." I say this with a resolute look at her. She looks up at me in shock, I note that she is trying her hardest to hide her burns. Smiling at her, mostly so she'll know I'm only joking I say;  
"Y'know, the more you try hiding those the more attention you draw to them." She gasps, then looks at me like a deer in headlights.  
"S-sorry... I guess I'm just a little overly conscious about it."  
"No need to apologise, I can imagine it's a hard habit to break. And the way people can be, I get why you'd cover them. Wish I could cover mine so easily." I smile widly at this to take the bitter skew out of my words. My comment is a reference to the thin scar that runs down my face from the middle of my right eyebrow to my chin. I see a small smile in the corner of her mouth.  
"Yeah it can get annoying... um, class is going to start soon, m-maybe you should be getting back to your desk..."  
"I've got a better idea, be right back.."

I dash over to the desk in the corner with all my stuff on it and carry my equipment and bag over to the empty desk next to Hanakos and put it down, taking note of the looks I'm getting from the few students that have filed into class while Hanako and I were talking. _I guess she really is a social pariah. Oh well, she's still cute as heck. She seems to get my humour too... that or she's just laughing out of politeness, either way, still cool. _I look over to her with a smile and am pleased to see the small shy one still mirrored on her face.

"This way I have someone to chat to when class gets too dull." I say jokingly with a wink and I'm pleased when she giggles at my comment, we spend the next five minutes before class chatting about random subjects such as what the classes entail, what time certain subjects happened, I find out her favourite subjects and am greatly pleased to hear that they're the same as my own favourites; Math and Science.

As the classes progress I find myself realising that as well as being super cute and a little shy (a good thing in my book) Hanako was incredibly smart, in fact the only person that could keep up with she and I in terms of classwork (I myself am fairly proficient when it comes to schoolwork) was a guy called Hisao Koizumi, who was... oddly even faster at finishing his work than the two of us.

"Hey Ikezawa, what's with that Koizumi guy?" She cringes slightly at my use of her last name and I realise a little too late that her burns may have cost her more than just her self-esteem.

"Umm, I don't know much about him, aside from the fact that he's class rep, was last year too. Also, if you don't mind, c-could you please... use my first name?"

"Of course Hanako, I'm sorry... I didn't think about, well... y'know. So anyway this Koizumi guy's popular as well as clever huh?"

"I guess, a-and its fine... I mean th-there's no way you could guess something like... that."

I spend the rest of the day in silence, contemplating what else I can figure out about the girl sitting beside me, to avoid any more conversational blunders like the one in out earlier conversation.

"Hey... Kaieru-kun."  
I'm so deep in thought that I don't realise Hanako's trying to talk to me.  
"Hmm, oh sorry Hanako-chan, still getting used to hearing my name pronounced like that I guess." I say with a smile. "What were you saying?"  
"Umm, just that class is over, we should get going... Unless you're in a club already or something like that."  
"Nope, no clubs... You wanted to walk home together?"  
Her face turns a light crimson at this question. "Umm... Only if you want to."  
"No problem, I just need to go get my sister first so I can walk her home too"  
"Isn't your sister in first year?"  
"That's right, why do you ask?"  
"Well... I-its just that the first years finish school a lesson before we do, so your sister will probably have left already, might even be home by now." She tells me this with a slightly apologetic look on her face, as if it's her fault somehow. _Wow this girl's a little damaged, I guess I should see if I can help her with that._

"Oh. Well than I guess we can just head off when you're ready." I say with a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two - the walk home**

I quietly look over to the shy, seemingly frightened girl beside me. She seems to be trying to stay as close to me as possible, yet also stay behind me.

"You ok Hanako?" She looks up at me and I see a brief glint of surprise in her eyes and also... what is that? confusion?

"I'm fine, this is just how I walk that's all." Hearing this comforts me some, and it is nice... Having her so close. So, in a far from selfless act, I accept her statement with a simple "OK."

We soon arive at Hanakos apartment, which is coincidentally in a block of apartments directly across the street from my familys new house. _Cool._ I think with a smile. Hanako sees my grin and asks me what's so funny.

"Nothing much, it's just that my family lives in that house across the street."  
she giggles softly at the irony before replying. "Really, that's impressive... I guess you come from a wealthy family then?" She says this on account of the 'house' across the street actually being more akin to a mansion, with two floors and about four windows spanning the front of it.  
"Yeah, but I don't like to flaunt it, people tend to behave differently when they find out your rich..."  
"I guess, but you're about the only person who's said anything nice to me all year so it doesn't matter to me how rich you are, or aren't." I smile at this.  
"Hey, the proximity might be handy when it comes to like studies and stuff, also now we can walk to school together, i-if you want to that is..."  
"I guess, it would be nice to have someone to talk to on the way to school."  
"And you'd get to meet Kaitlyn, she'll like you." I say this with a smile.  
"R-really? How can you be so certain?" as she asks this her shyness becomes more prominent.  
"Because I do." I say simply as I smile down at her. She blushes at this and utters a mumbled "that's sweet." I continue smiling at her as I reach over and brush the hair away from her face, on most girls this move would seem cheesy, but on Hanako it has a certain added significance. Her eyes widen in fear as her burns are put in full view.  
"It's ok Hana-chan" I whisper softly "As you can see you're not the only one with scars." I find myself reffering to my facial scar for a second time.  
I also have one on my left forearm but as I'm wearing my school uniform, she can't see that particular scar.  
"But your scar actually... m-makes you l-look umm... sort of... cute." She finishes this statement as fast and quiet as she can. I smile brightly at her assessment of my appearance and respond simply by running a hand gently down the burnt side of her face and pulling her in for a hug.  
"You may not believe me Hana-chan, but I think you're beautiful, scars and all, inside and out." She audibly gasps at this curt reassurance of her attractiveness and I feel her arms snake their way around my waist as she returns the hug warmly. Then I feel a small burning feeling roughly where her arms sit... _Odd, this is how it feels when Kaity loses control of her powers and I have to calm her with a hug. But that would make Hanako a..._  
"You're a meta-human, aren't you Hanako?" I ask my question without any hint of accusation or discrimination.  
"H-how do you know that?" she asks in shock. I contemplate this question, wondering how best to answer it. I realise that a physical demonstration may be the best way.  
"D'you mind if we go inside?" I ask casually picking a flower from the garden as Hanako leads the way into her apartment.

Upstairs in Hanakos apartment I ask her to take a seat and place the flower on her living room table, which is actually a Kotatsu, but due to the current weather it's currently not connected to a powerpoint.  
"Watch the flower." I tell her and with one finger placed gently on the stem I concentrate my ability to my fingertip, pleased to see a purple concentration make its way from my finger up the stem of the flower, after a couple of seconds I remove my finger and Hanakos eyes widen in amazement as a dark, rich shade of purple slowly creeps its way over the pale white petals of the flower, which I now notice is a rose, causing it to wilt and die.  
"That's incredible Kyle, so you're a mutant too?"  
"Yeah, I have the ability to 'secrete' a spore from my skin that in low doses renders organics unconscious, and in high doses is toxic, as you just saw. It's also highly corrosive, can eat its way through an inch of steel in seconds." I state, filling with a small sense of pride at my astute summary of my powers.  
"So. what about you, I'm guessing your power is different, but I felt the same sensation from your hug as I do when little Katie loses control and I have to hug her to calm her down."  
"So your sister's a mutant too?"  
"Yep, what's cool is that our powers are identical, so I'm immune to her and she's immune to me, totally safe. Say Hanako, could I trouble you for a drink? I'm kinda parched."  
"Oh I'm so sorry, I totally forgot to offer you one. Wait here I'll go make us some tea." She rises from her position on the floor of her living room and dashes into the kitchen. As I wait I take off my school jacket and scratch idly at my now bare shoulder.

It isn't long before Hanako returns carrying a tray laden with a tea pot and two cups. I smile at her as she sits opposite me and thank her as I accept my tea, letting out an appreciative sigh as I take a sip. I then remind Hanako that she hasn't answered my question about her powers by asking it again.  
"Well, my main ability actually allows me to mimic other mutants abilities after we make physical contact, but... its kind of ironic, since my powers manafested last year I've had an accelerated healing rate, like that Wolverine guy that works with the X-men, but for some reason it won't heal my burns."  
"I've heard of your copying ability. It's called Chameleopathy, or something like that, I'm not certain how to pronounce it... As for your healing ability, maybe it only heals what happens after the manafestation occurs."  
"That does make sense. Hey, I just noticed you have a tattoo."  
"Oh, yeah its pretty sweet huh?" I lean my arm around to give her a better look. "It's a poisonous flower called Nightshade, I use that as my codename, mostly for when Katie and I are playing. Hers is Belladonna, which is just another name for the same flower, I figured since our powers are identical the origin of our codenames might as well be too."  
"Aww, that's so sweet. Big softie"  
_She must be getting more comfortable with being around me if she's making jokes about me._ I think with a smile, Hanako sees this and assumes I'm smiling at her joke which causes her to smile back, her adoreable face lit up like a christmas tree.  
"So, do you get to keep all the powers you mimic or can you only use one at a time?"  
"No, I can use any I've used previously, I just remember what the ability is and;" She finishes the statement by touching the tin serving tray. I watch in silence as it melts outwards from her fingertip at a rapid rate. _She's had my ability for less than an hour and already has more power than Katie, more control too though I sense that's more to do with her own powers than mine._  
"That's incredible, how many other abilities do you have?"  
"Just the one, at first I thought my healing was my only mutation, but then I bumped into a girl at the supermarket and suddenly I found myself walking and falling through the floor. Luckly she noticed and pulled me out, warning me that if I have her abilities I should be very careful when and how I use them."  
"Did she tell you her name?"  
"She said it was Kitty Pryde"  
"Oh cool you've met Shadowcat, I'm so jealous. Only X-man I've ever met is Magick, she was cute, but kind of serious y'know?" She laughs at this and nods her understanding. It's at this point I notice the time.  
"I guess I should be going, after all we have school tomorrow. Come across tomorrow morning and we can walk to school together, you can meet Katie too" I suggest this with a smile and am greatly pleased when she agrees, though I'm careful not to let it show...


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three - Kaitlyn meets Hanako**

The next morning I woke 10 minutes early to the sound of a knock at the front door, I was still half asleep as I answered it, so I was still in my pyjamas. "Hanako." The surprise is evident in my voice.  
"Hey Kyle... a-aren't you ready... for school yet?"  
"Hanako, school doesn't start for an hour, its only a five minute walk..."  
She looks down shyly at her the ground. "Yeah I know, I just like to get there early so I can start that lessons reading." She finishes her statement with a slightly cheeky grin on her face. I have just enough time to smile back before I hear Kaitlyn call down from upstairs.  
"Hey onee-chan, who's at the door?"  
"It's Hanako, the girl I told you about last night. Hurry up and get ready for school, Hanako's ready to go already." I look back to Hanako.  
"Don't worry Hanako, she won't take long."  
"Maybe but you still need to get ready too silly." She says this with that cheeky grin still on her face.

"Oi Kyle, could you make me a coffee while I take a quick shower?" I sigh and roll my eyes in Hanakos direction with a slight grin. "Alright, but make it super fast sis 'cause I still need to have one too."  
" 'Kay"  
"Come on in Hanako, there's a set of spare slippers there if you want, or you can just wander around in your socks, your choice. Would you like a coffee, or if you prefer we have instant tea?"  
"Tea would be perfect, but I don't want to be too much trouble..." She says this with a shy glance at the floor as she takes her shoes off and puts the spare slippers on.  
"Its no trouble at all Hanako-chan, just take a seat and I'll bring it right out."

After the kettle boils I sit with Hanako after yelling to Kaitlyn that her coffee is ready and chat while waiting for Kaitlyn to finish in the shower.

"Hey Kyle, I know we've only been here for like 10 minutes, but your sister is out of the shower, shouldn't you be getting ready for school?" I put my teacup down with a sigh. "You're right, I just got a little side tracked thats all, It's just nice spending time with you..." I say this with a smile in her direction. My comment has the desired effect of turning her face a rich scarlet. "T-thank you, you're sweet." She smiles back at me. "But that doesn't let you off the hook mister, now march your butt up those stairs and get ready for school." I pull a face at her and feign lazyness as I rise from my seat and go get ready for school.

As I step out of the my room, having just finished putting my uniform on, I hear the girls talking in the living room and after hearing Kaitlyns overly rauchious laughter I can't help but wonder if maybe introducing the two of them might have been a bad idea. I step into the living room and Hanako looks at me with a smile. "Ready to go Kyle?"  
"Ready when you are."  
"Okay then, lets go already!"  
_My sister, ever energetic. _I think to myself with a sigh.

The walk to school was surprisingly quiet, with my sister too busy giving me an annoyingly knowing look and Hanako trying her hardest to hide by my side the whole time. When we get to school Kaitlyn goes off to her class, that smug all-knowing look still on her face while Hanako and I head to our class and take our seats.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter four - segregation**

The teacher enters class with a grave look on his face.  
"Class, I have some news. The school board, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to split year levels into two groups, human and meta-human, now given the low number of meta-humans in this particular school, all of you will be placed into one class encompassing all three year levels." As he finishes dropping this bombshell, I look over to Hanako and see my own shocked expression mirrored flawlessly upon her face. There was just one thing in particular I was curious about.  
"Sir, who exactly is teaching the class for us meta-humans?" This question is met with gasps of shock from the entire class as my own question leaves Koizumis mouth before I even have the chance to finish fully thinking it.  
_Wait a second... Koizumi, can you hear me?_  
_Yes, and to answer your next question I'm a telepathic and telekinetic mutant._  
_Cool, nice to know I'm not the only one._  
_You already knew that after walking Hanako home last night... mind-reader remember?_  
_Right._  
"Your new teacher comes highly reccomended by Charles Xaviers school for gifted youngsters, her name is Jean Grey." I whisper to Hanako beside me;  
"Jean Grey, also called Pheonix is one of the most powerful telepaths to ever live."  
"What's she doing here?"  
"I have no clue." Suddenly the teacher is introducing Jean, or Proffessor Grey as we are now to call her, to the entire class.  
"Now would Proffessor Greys new students please stand and acompany her to your new class room, proffessor do you have your attendance sheet?"  
"I do sir thank you, would Hisao Koizumi, Kyle McArthur and Hanako Ikezawa please stand and follow me to our new classroom." As Hanako and I stand I take note of Hisao Koizumi; roughly Hanakos height, so still shorter than me. His hair is light brown and spiked back like so many anime characters. His eyes almost match his hair colour and his skin is a tribute to his athleticism, a deep shade of golden brown almost, dare I say it... caramel coloured. So either he's part Indian or he gets a lot of sun, I'm going with the second we walk down the hall, I contemplate something briefly before coming to a decision.  
_Proffessor Grey, can you hear me?_  
_Yes Kyle, was there something in particular you wanted to discuss?_  
_Well, I don't mean to sound rude but, what's a mutant of your calibre doing here?_  
_Your headmaster reached out to proffessor Xavier, seems that if the school board is to insist that meta humans be taught by themselves he wanted them taught by the best. _At this point in the conversation we stop at a year two class, presumably between our old room and our new one. "Wait here you three I need to pick up another student. She goes in and comes back with a girl who introduces herself as Azusa Nakano as we head to our new room once again I give her subtly assess our new classmate; about half a foot shorter than Hanako, making her roughly a foot shorter than me. She has purple hair tied back in pig tails that reach to her hips, pale skin and bright violet eyes.  
_Cute, pretty even. But nowhere near as cute as Hana-chan._ After my assessment is finished I return to my conversation with Proffesser Grey. _So why send you of all people, Why not Ororo, or someone like that?_  
_I was the only available mutant with a grasp of Japanese so the Proffessor sent me, Logan is the only other X-man besides the proffessor with a knowledge of Japanese, but he's currently on a similar assignment in Russia with Peter Rasputin, Collossus as you may know him. And Ororo is currently in Africa, Egypt specifically if I recall correctly doing the same thing there._  
_But why send anyone, is it really his problem? I mean he has no ties to us, pretty sure he's never met the Headmaster who's never even left the city. So why respond at all?_  
_Charles Xavier is one of the most selfless mutants I have ever met, he doesn't see this as a problem but rather as a way to better all of mutant-kind._  
_That's a very large endeavour for one man._ The Pheonix chuckles at this.  
"Those are some fairly deep thoughts running through your head young Kyle, but this conversation will have to be continued later, here's your new classroom students, go inside and choose a desk, maybe get better aquainted while I go and collect the rest of your class from the first year classes." And with that she leaves us to our own devices.

"Well we already know one student that she'll be dragging back here." I direct this comment to Hanako who giggles as I acompany my statement with an eye roll. "Yeah, but I bet she'll be excited to be in the same class as you."  
"You kidding, she's going to hate it, might be happy you're here though." It's at this point that we're reminded that we aren't alone as Azusa pipes up with a question.  
"Who are you guys talking about?"  
"My little sister, she's a first year and she has powers too so now I'm going to have to put up with her in my class." I respond to Azusas question with a sigh but I am secretly glad that I'll be there to calm her if she loses control of her powers. "So Nakano, what are your powers if you don't mind me asking, after all I already know Koizumis and Hanakos."  
"Nothing special really, I'm pyrokinetic. Not many non-combat applications to a power like mine, senpai." She points this out with a sad look and a small sigh.  
"Well, I think it's an awesome power, and you're officially invited if I ever go camping." I say this with a smile to let her know im only joking, not teasing her. I'm pleased to see that her face lights up considerably at my comment. It's at this point however that I notice Hanako standing... slightly cowering behind me, trying to hide from Azusa, it takes me a minute to realise why and when I do I silently scold myself for my density before turning to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and whisper softly to her.  
"Hey Hanako, its ok. Azusa won't hurt you, I doubt she'd even want to try. But I won't let her if she does..."  
"I-it's not just that, I don't want to glean her ability, I don't think I could cope with the ability to control fire."  
"Oh, well your power needs contact the first time around right? So just don't touch her and you'll be fine." I say this with a smile and give her a hug in the hopes of calming her down a little. As she wraps her arms around my waist we hear a voice from the direction of the door.  
"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"  
Hanako and I respond to the question by leaping apart as if the other of us just caught fire.  
"N-no ma'am, of course not. I was just trying to cheer Hanako-chan up a little thats all..."  
"Then in that case allow me to introduce the rest of your class, Kyle I believe that the two of you are already aquainted"  
"Being related does that miss." I say with a slight cheeky grin.  
"For those of you who aren't related to her, this is Kaitlyn McArthur."  
"Nice to meet you Kaitlyn." Was Koizumis polite greeting, Azusa on the other hand was far friendlier to the more-solemn-than-useual Kaitlyn and greeted her with a smile, a "Hi" and a warm hug, which a shocked Kaitlyn (to my surprise) returned.  
"And now to buisness, class is in session as of now, please take a seat."

Hanako sits at the end so I decide with a smile in her direction to sit beside her. To no-ones surprise Kaitlyn sits on my other side, to her surprise Azusa decides to sit beside her. Koizumi silently takes a seat in the row behind, by personal choice I decide as there are two empty seats still in the front row at Azusas other side. Class then commences and continues pretty much as normal. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter five - Extra curricular activities**

Hanako, Kaitlyn and I were just about to leave after class when we were called back into the room by Azusa. When we re-enter the teacher speaks up.  
"The reason I called the four of you back in here is this; I would like to make you an offer, at the behest of proffessor Xavier, to join a new team of X-men, formed right here in this school, though of course we can't use the school for a hideout, I'll get back to you in regards to that, but for now I want to know if you would like to be members of this new team?"  
"Sure." Was the general consensus from the four of us.  
"Excellent, bring your codenames in to me at your earliest convenience, or if you prefer I could choose one for you?"  
"No thank you proffessor." Again, a general consensus. As we're leaving again Azusa turns to us and says;  
"Do you guys mind if I stay at your place tonight? My landlord's after me for rent and I don't get paid until tomorrow..."  
"Sure, mum and dad won't mind, they're out of town 'till tomorrow afternoon anyway."  
"I don't have any stuff with me though..." Kaitlyn piped up at this;  
"Thats ok Azusa-chan, you can just borrow some of my clothes."  
_Wow, they made fast friends.._

Hanako turns to me as we come up on my house and pulls lightly on my sleeve to get my attention.  
"Would you like to come up for some tea?" She asks this with that irresistable shy smile of hers and I smile brightly in response.  
"I would love to Hana-chan. Sis, Nakano, care to join us?"  
"No thanks bro, I'd like to get changed, and then I'll show Azusa-chan her room for the night, maybe next time Hanako." She says this to Hanako with a knowing smile and a conspiriatorial wink.  
_Whats with the wink? _I think to myself.  
"Thats fine Katie, you have a guest to entertain after all." Hanakos reply is accompanied by a similar wink from her.  
_Seriously is there something I don't know here..?_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter six - Tea with "Survivour"**

As I enter Hanakos living room, I find myself questioning the wisdom of spending this time alone with a girl I've literally only know for two days. After a moment however I sweep away my concerns.  
_Hanako's my friend, I doubt anything bad could happen._

"Umm, Kyle?" The tone in Hanakos voice tells me that she has tried more than once to get my attention.  
"Sorry Hanako, what was it you were saying?"  
"Just wondering what you want to do, I-I have a chess board if you wanted to play a game..." She makes this request with a small smile on her face and a glint of hope in her eyes. _How did I not notice how enwrapturing her eyes are before now? _I smile, both at my thought and at her. "Sure, I'd love to play chess. But, if it's not too much trouble, could we have some tea? I can set the board up while you make it if you like."  
"Sure... n-no problem." She looks pleased that I agreed to play chess with her. I decided to let Hanako be white, hers was a novelty chess set based around the Lord of the Rings movie franchise so white was the army of men, black the forces of evil with sauron as the king and saruman as the queen. I could describe the whole set, but I'll leave it to your imagination. Anyway as Hanako made her first move I decided to strike up a conversation.

"So, Hanako. Any thoughts on your code name?"  
"Umm, not really. do you have any yet?"  
"Well me and Katie already have ours." I say this with a grin and pat my shoulder to remind her of my tattoo.  
"Oh, right. Your lucky, I can't really use my power to find a name so I'm sort of stuck."  
"Well you could use copycat, but I think that's taken... You could always use your healing power for one." by this point of the conversation most of my pieces are gone, all I have left is a queen, my king, a bishop and 2 pawns. _Wow, Hana-chan's damned good at this game..._  
"I guess but what would that get me, Healer? Sounds kinda lame."  
"Well maybe if you take from past experiences.. Given your past, coupled with you healing power, Survivour seems appropriate. It shows that you've survived thus far through sheer will and that you'll continue to survive, no matter what happens." I notice the board as I finish talking, her king is pinned behind three pawns and the rest of her back row is empty, if I put him in check with my queen its game, but Hanako just took my queen. It's then that I notice one of my own pawns one move from the back of the board. I move the pawn foreward and replace it with a queen. "Checkmate" I declare triumphantly, it's at this point I notice Hanakos hand trembling, I look up and see her eyes glassed over with tears, her face still frozen in a mixture of shock and sorrow.  
_I highly doubt this is because I just beat her at chess..._ I move silently to her side and tentativly place an arm around her, leaning her head onto my shoulder and run my hand through her hair. "I'm sorry for bringing up the past Hana-chan, I should have realised from your reaction to Azusa that you havn't fully recovered yet." She sobs softly and visibly flinches at this so I pull her into what I hope is a comforting hug and am somewhat pleased when she finally returns it and she's smiling so fiercely that I can actually feel it against my chest.  
"I-it's ok, you're right. It happened almost ten years ago so psychologically I should be at least able to talk about it with you."  
"Well, I don't mind if you need more time, after all we only met a couple of days ago."  
"Well yeah but... Um, nevermind." I notice that her face has turned a bright red. _Hmm, wonder what she's embarrassed about. _I give her a playful shake, my arm still around her shoulder.  
"Well? Survivour 'is' a pretty cool codename, better than Cyclops." I say with a grin, she giggles at this.  
"I guess so... I kinda like it. That was a nice move by the way." She says this last part with an indication to the chess board.  
"Makes a nice change, Saruman doing something useful." She laughs at the humerous referance to Lord of the Rings.  
_That's the first genuine laugh of hers I've heard, it's kind of musical, soft yet beautiful._  
"I should probably go, before the girls call out a search party." Just then my phone went off in my pocket, a message from Kaitlyn;

_**'Hey bro, just lettin you know that Azusa and I have had dinner already and we were goin' to put a movie on in my room so you can take your time over there. love ya bro'**_

"Huh, guess there's no rush after all. I can still go if you want though.."  
"No! I-I mean, please stay a little longer. You can stay for dinner, I-if you want..." Her voice, adamant and forceful to begin with grows softer with every word. I look at her with a smile and hug her again. "I'd love to, in fact, you'd need a pretty good reason to get me away from a beautiful girl like you Hana-chan." I both hear and feel her gasp when I call her beautiful. She looks up at me, surprise in her eyes and scrawled across her face, and I lean in towards her and press my lips lightly against hers in a fleeting, tantalising kiss. I'm surprised when she not only returns the kiss but deepens it, wrapping her arms around my neck. I pull our faces apart after what feels like an eternity, but in truth is only a few minutes and smile at her as I brush her hair clear of her face, making her start reflexivly as her burns come into view. In response I gently run my hand down the side of her face, stroking her cheek and lean in to softly kiss her cheek and neck. her response to this is to run her hand through my hair and lean her neck into me. I kiss my way back up to the side of her face and whisper into her ear.  
"Seems kind of silly to ask now, but for the sake of formality; would you like to go out some time?" She giggles at my wording of the request and gives me a hug so tight I have to move a little to avoid being smothered to death. "Of course, of course. In fact, I've been trying to ask you all night, then you kissed me and caught me totally off guard."  
"That's awesome, I've wanted to ask you since we met. I just couldn't figure out how to phrase it, or when to ask.." She gives a small chuckle at this piece of news. "How about you reset the board, and I'll go cook us some dinner?"  
"No problem." She gives me a swift peck on the cheek then darts off to the kitchen.

We eat our dinner and play chess while casually chatting, she questions me on my past and in return tells me about hers; her accident, losing her parents in the fire, living at the orphanage, going to school and being harrassed by her classmates.  
"Well, anyone picks on you at this school they'll have me, your new boyfriend to answer to."  
"First." She says with a blush.  
"Pardon?"  
"You're not my 'new' boyfriend... you're my first."  
"Oh, well in that case I'm honoured." I say this with a smile and a slightly joking bow. I'm pleased to hear her soft beautiful laugh. I feel her hand on my shoulder and look up to see her smile. She leans in, kisses my cheek and whispers in my ear. "I have a spare room if you want, you could stay the night..." I smile at this and kiss her softly then reply; "I'd love to, but are you sure it's a good idea, we have school tomorrow. Plus Kaitlyn and Azusa would never let us hear the end of it in class, maybe the weekend?"  
"Sure, how about friday night?"  
"No power in the 'verse could stop me.."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter seven - Turning Point**

When I answered the door on Friday morning I surprise Hanako by already being ready for class, having been awake since five thirty this morning.  
"Hey sweety, ready to go?"  
"Where's Katie?"  
"She's having the day off, she isn't feeling well"  
"Oh, ok. I didn't see your parents car in the driveway either, are they out of town again?" I cringe at her question, the innocence the genuine curiosity. I havn't the heart to tell her, not Hanako, the girl my parents met only once and fell instantly in love with. I couldn't tell her about it, but at the same time, did I have the right to keep that secret? No, but maybe just for today, I'll tell her tonight after school, I don't want her lingering on it all day after all, not after how much has happened to her already...  
"Uh yeah, they get back tomorrow." _Or at least most of them do._ I think in a grim mood.  
"Oh, alright. Hey Kyle, are you ok? You seem a little distracted."  
"I'm fine Hana-chan, just looking forward to tonight." I say this with the hopes that it will distract her and draw her away from this uncomfortable topic. I give silent thanks to whoever's paying attention that it works.  
"Me too, did you want to get your stuff now or later?"  
"I'll get it later, its all upstairs packed, but I wanted to drop off my school gear and check in on Katie anyway."

When we get to class I realise just how distracted I appear when both Pheonix and Koizumi contact me telepathically at the same time, asking the same question; _Are you ok?_ By this point I'm used to telepathic communication due to Koizumi practising in class and Pheonix trying to get us used to it by talking to us all telepathically in and out of class so I reply to both simultaniously with ease. _I'm fine _I say to both of them, after this reply Koizumi loses interest, Pheonix however sees right through the lie and questions me further.  
_Wheres Kaitlyn? _  
_She's sick so she decided to stay at home for the day._  
_What aren't you telling me Kyle?_  
_Nothing important proffessor, promise. I'll tell the three of you at our meeting after school._  
_Very well..._ The tone of her thought accentuates the fact that she is more than a little displeased.

The rest of the day ends quickly and by the time our after school club convienes I already know the girls are waiting for my explaination of whats wrong and why Kaitlyn isn't here. I turn to the three girls and take a breath before speaking.  
"The reason Kaitlyn's not here and the reason I seem a little... off, are one and the same; yesterday night we got a phone call from Haiashi Hospital in Saitama. My parents had been driving home from the airport after flying back from their buisness trip and a truck... I-it ran a red light. The driver was drunk, what kind of dumbass drives an 18-wheeler drunk?!" I take a deep breath that exhales as a sigh before continuing. "My father, who was behind the wheel, died on impact. My mother was declared dead after an hour long attempt to stabilise her." I finish my sentence with tears in my eyes and realise I myself had yet to grieve, I was too concerned with Kaitlyns recovery. It's only as I wipe my eyes then I feel Hanako wrap her arms around me, her own eyes stained with tears, no-one questions why I waited to tell my story, I guess they felt I couldn't cope with telling the story more than once. I pull Hanako in close and kiss the top of her head before feeling a slightly smaller pair of arms wrap around us both, Azusa must have needed some comforting too. I place one hand on the back of Azusas head, the other between Hanakos shoulders and begin stroking them both in an attempt to comfort the two of them. We stand like this for about five minutes before Jean tells us that we should head home, Azusa offers to look after Kaitlyn while I spend the night at Hanakos, an offer I gratefully accept.

We stop at Azusas apartment on the way home so she can get some clothes and stuff then head home, Hanako and I say farewell to Azusa and Kaitlyn after I grabbed my stuff from upstairs and we head over to Hanakos apartment. When we get in Hanako makes some tea while I offer to cook dinner for us, she tries to refuse out of politeness but I shoot her down, eager to impress the beautiful woman with my culinary skills, and distract myself from the events of the morning. I manage to whip up some mild curry, not sure of Hanakos spice preferance I decide to play it safe. I cook up some rice to go with it and Hanako compliments my cooking skill when we sit down to eat. We spend a while chatting and go to bed at around nine thirty, I kiss Hanako softly and wish her a good night as we head to our seperate rooms.  
At about eleven I stir in my sleep to the sound of the door to my room opening and closing, I roll over, still half asleep and see Hanakos slim figure silhouetted against the paper door. I awaken fully when she walks over to my bedside and crawls in with me.  
"Hanako, you ok sweety?"  
"I'm fine... I just thought you might like some company." I roll over and put my arm around her, pleased when she cuddles into me and closes her eyes like it's the most natural position in the world. I kiss the top of her head and whisper to her. "Goodnight, my sweet Hanako..."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter eight - weekend liberty, yeah right**

I awake to what sounds like a thunder storm with intermittent bangs going off every minute or so, the first thing I notice is that I'm alone. _So, did I dream what happened last night?_ Then I hear a knock on Hanakos front door. I slowly rise and get dressed as I hear Hanako call out to the person at the door. By the time I exit the spare room I've spent the night in Hanako has her guests sitting around the living room table. I'm not surprised to see Azusa, or Kaitlyn either really. The Pheonix however is a pleasent surprise. I only have a few seconds to register her prescense before the sound that woke me occurs again, louder and closer this time, more like a gunshot than thunder.  
"That's been happening for about half an hour now, getting closer and closer to the region, it originated along with a 'storm' somewhere in the middle of the pacific ocean that split in two and went in opposite directions, one headed here the other went stateside, the X-men are trying to deal with that one, Proffessor Xavier has requested that we, my X-men as he calls the four of you, try to deal with the half headed here, he suspects that it is a Horseman of Apocalypse, though no-one is sure which one, or who it was before its transformation."  
"What can we do to find out?"  
"Well Nightshade, at this point... Not much. I just wanted us to be ready, and the only way for that to happen is to have the four of you in the same place." I start at her use of my codename, something that I had yet to tell her, she gives me a slightly disparaging look. "Please Kyle, I'm a telepath, remember?"  
"Oh, right." It's at this point that I notice Azusa stifling laughter, I raise my eyebrow at her. "I'm s-sorry senpai." She says through fits of laughter. "It's just 'Nightshade'? What's your power, throwing flowers at people?"  
"Well, I could demonstrate, but I doubt Hanako would appreciate it."  
"It's ok sweety, there's some fruit in the kitchen, you could use that couldn't you?" I grimace at the suggestion.  
"No thanks, last time I did that the smell was on my clothes for days.."  
"Well, would this help?" The question is voiced by the Pheonix, who is holding a flower out to me.  
"Perfect proffesser, thanks"  
"Please, Jean or Pheonix outside of class."  
"Ok than; Pheonix. Now, watch closely Azusa-chan" Azusa looks at the flower curiously as I touch the stem and my ability seeps onto the flower and wilts it slowly. "My power is the ability to produce a spore that, in small doses will render any human or animal unconcious, or in large doses kill anything organic, its also highly corrosive."  
"So why would you want your name to be a flower?"  
"Nightshade, or Belladonna as it is also called, is the most toxic flower known to man." Azusa looks stunned at this information "Oh" she says "Then I guess it makes sense, but still, choosing a flower? Isn't that a little... girly? Especially for the 'only' guy on the team?" Before I can reply Hanako speaks up, rather forcefully.  
"It's not girly, its sweet! He only chose that name so he and Kaitlyn could have similar names to go with their identical powers!" I get a little worried as Hanako looks to be on the verge of physically attacking poor Azusa, who now looks totally stunned at the fact that the useually-timid Hanako is berating her. She also seems rather apologetic at jokingly labeling an act of brotherly affection as a mark of femininity. "I-Im so sorry Kaieru-senpai, Hanako-senpai... I didn't even know you and Kaitlyn had the same abilities, I didn't think she had anything to do with it."  
"It's fine Azusa, I knew you weren't being cruel or anything like that." I move to Hanakos side and place a hand on her shoulder. "You ok hun?" I ask her softly as she leans into me she replies. "Fine, I just don't like seeing my friends get picked on, even by their friends." I give her a comforting squeeze and kiss her softly, an act that causes her to turn a vibrant red. "We're not alone remember?"  
"So? I'm supposed to be the one that protects 'you' from the bullys and the bad guys, not the other way around. Remember?" I jokingly fire her own question back at her before kissing her nose playfully. She giggles at this and kisses me in return. Pheonix clears her throat. "When you two are finished, I can finish briefing you on how that 'storm' was caused."  
"Well you mentioned the horsemen of Apocalypse, Im guessing Apocalypse himself is back again?"  
"Very astute of you Nightshade, yes Apocalypse is back, he has sent two of his horsemen out, we believe to recruit the other two. The reason one of them was sent here is because of the 'mutant energy' given off by every mutant, unfortunatly my own energy levels are high enough to make them believe there may be more than one strong mutant here."  
"There's nothing that could be done about that Pheonix, we'll just wait for the horseman to get here and deal with him when he does."  
"On the plus side, Apocalypse hasn't appeared in the flesh yet, he is yet to break out of the negative zone, his attempts are the cause of the sound we keep hearing."  
"Don't worry proffessor, this Horseman may be powerful but there's no way he can deal with the four of us at the same time." I turn to Hanako and whisper to her; "You may want to take Azusas power, I know it may be a psycological problem for you but think about it Hana-chan, strategically, this 'horseman' won't be expecting a multi-powered mutant, if you take Azusa and Proffessor Greys powers you could hit him with mine and theirs at the same time, no-one could handle that..." Hanako is shivering slightly in my arms while I speak to her, but stills slightly and looks to me in determination and nods at me before darting over to Azusa and giving her a hug, whispering an apology for her outburst in her ear, then running her hand across the proffessors back as she walks back to me and kisses me softly.  
"When the proffessor goes we'll head over to my place with the girls, theres a safe room you can practise your new power in."  
"O-okay..." I give her a supportive hug. "Don't worry sweety, nothing bad will happen, hey Azusa, does your ability make you fireproof too?"  
"Well yeah, be sort of pointless being able to catch fire if I wasn't fireproof right?"  
"Good point." I whisper to Hanako "Feel better now?"  
"A little, but just seeing it might affect me kinda badly."  
"Don't worry, I'll be with you the whole time."  
"But you're 'not' fireproof, right?"  
"My spore is, if I coat myself in it then I am too."  
"Thats sort of cool."  
Jean looks at us with a pleased twinkle in her eye, but also a hint of concern. "You shouldn't be so eager to rush into the fight little ones. I have Forge, Bishop and Beast flying into town to help us set up a base of operations, all we need is a location, we can't risk using your school, can't have any non-metas stumble upon it, or Koizumi... Too many questions, but where else is there?"  
"Well proffessor, you could always use the house across the road from here.."  
"Don't you think the owners of said house may be a little put out by our presence Belladonna?"  
"I doubt it proffessor, its our house." Kaitlyn says this with a slightly cheeky grin. Azusa looks between the two of them and says to the Pheonix "Don't worry proffessor, when I first saw Katies house I nearly died of shock, she didn't even warn me." She says the last part of this comment with an accusatory look and a playful shove at Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn replys with a slightly bashful look on her face. "I didn't want you to like me just because I have a fancy house..."  
"Our family doesn't like to flaunt its wealth very much, we should have enough room for a full op center though, maybe even the rescources for a Cerebro copy for you and Hanako to use Pheonix."  
"Well, that should work nicely, I doubt proffessor Xavier would allow the funding to come from your pocket though Kyle, in fact he would probably be rather disappointed if I didn't try vehemently to stop it."  
"I don't think it will cause a problem proffessor, our father used to own the company he worked in, he left it all to us and it owns half of Europe, so it's possible that we are actually better funded than proffessor Xavier. Although I doubt that."  
"Well, I tried..."  
"Also if you like the three of you could move in to the estate, keeping the five of us together would be better for training, it might help us to get a little closer too."  
"While I appreciate the offer Kyle, I am quite comfortable, not to mention hidden in my current accommodation."  
"Fair enough. Azusa, Hanako how about you two?"  
"I'd love to, as long as Katie doesn't mind."  
"Of course I don't Azu-nyan, you're my best friend why would I?" Azusas face lights up at Kaitlyns assessment of their friendship, while I am still stuck on her pet name for Azusa.  
"Where the hell did Azu-nyan come from?"  
"Well, you know that cat outfit mum got me for halloween last year, I got Azusa to try on the ears that went with it and she was so cute I just had to get her to do the meow, then her nickname became Azu-nyan 'cause it was so adorably cute..."  
"And you made fun of Nightshade?" I ask with a tone of incredulity.  
"Hey, I didn't 'pick' Azu-nyan."  
"Whatever moving on, Hanako, how about you?"  
"No power in the 'verse could stop me." She says this with a cheeky grin, echoing my statement from earlier in the week. She simultaniously thinks to me; _no need to make up a spare room for me either, last night was the best sleep I've had in years..._ I look at her after hearing her thought and she winks subtly at me. _So I wasn't dreaming that..._ I think to myself.  
"It's decided then, Hanako and I will pack up some of her stuff, Kaitlyn you and Azusa can go get some stuff from her apartment, Proffessor, could I impose upon you give them a hand?"  
"Certainly, girls if you wouldn't mind could we get going? I have to contact Forge and inform him of the location for the op center before nightfall."  
"Okay proffessor" The girls replied in unison.

After the three of them leave I decide to question Hanako about the previous nights events. "So, what happened last night? what made you decide that crawling in with me was a good idea?"  
"I thought you might be upset about your parents, and also I... I kinda..."  
"What is it sweety, you can tell me." I say with a smile.  
"I-I had a nightmare." She says shame-facedly.  
"Aww, Hana-chan, why didn't you say something last night?"  
"I didn't want to worry you with it."  
"What was it about?"  
"Uh-uh not telling, its too frightening..."  
"Ok now im curious." As I say this I slowly move towards her and pull her in close. "Tell me, I won't laugh. Promise." She sighs at my insistance. "Ok, but its not that interesting, In fact it's silly really, but at the same time I would die if it actually happened..."  
"Just tell me already, don't make me tickle you missy." She giggles before her face turns solemn. "It.. I was at..." She sighs again. "It was your funeral ok, there. I said it, are you happy now!" She bursts into tears and cries into my chest, I can't tell if the tears are more from frustration or sadness, but I wrap my arms around her nonetheless. "Hey, I'm sorry Hana-chan, I wasn't expecting that, I was expecting like monsters or something, maybe a flashback nightmare, but my funeral... Wait, why is that frightening?"  
"You're my first ever boyfriend Kyle, hopefully my last too... I don't know how I lived without you and I don't know what I would do if I lost you now.." She dissolves into tears again. "Hanako..."  
"Hanako, look at me." She looks up at me and I wipe the tears from her eyes.  
"Nothing bad is going to happen, ok. I promise you I'm not dying any time soon." She smiles at my attempt to reassure her. "You better not mister." She playfully shoves my chest before kissing me softly. We spend the next five minutes with our arms around each other, lips locked together before we finally pack up Hanakos possessions and take them over to my house, well 'our' house now and watch a movie while we wait for Katie and Azusa to get home.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter nine - Horseman of War**

We wake an hour into the movie to find that Katie and Azusa have returned, and eaten without us, Kaitlyn sees us from the table they're seated at chatting and calls over to us. "Hey you two, your finally up. Dinner's in the oven keeping warm." I look over to her and her bright smile. _What's she got to be so darn happy about..._ I must have projected this thought because after I think it Hanako giggles beside me. "How long were we asleep?"  
"Well this is the third time the movie's played through since we got back, so at least five hours..." I jump to my feet at this, startling poor Hanako as I do so. "Five hours!? Why didn't you wake us when you got back?" Katie smiles at Azusa before answering. "Well, you guys were just too cute, sleeping all cuddled up like that." I sigh at her flippantness. "I'll be right back." My sudden departure is caused by the combination of a full bladder and a now fully concious mind.

Upon my return I see Hanako falling ravenously upon her dinner, which appears to be a pasta dish. "Who cooked?" I ask cautiously before taking my own plate out of the oven; Fettuccine Cabonara. "Azu-nyan cooked" Kaitlyn says this with a mixture of defensiveness (understandible, I can't stand her cooking and she knows it) and pride at her friends culinary prowess. "Well thats alright then, can't be worse than your cooking..." Azusa surprises me by bowing on her knees at the table. "I hope you enjoy it senpai, I tried my very hardest to follow your mothers recipe to the letter." I smile at this. "I'm sure its fine Azusa, and could you stop with the senpai stuff, I mean seriously, we're living together now I'd like to think you could use my name... Also, they're my fathers recipes, mother was hopeless at cooking, the woman would burn water..." The girls all giggle at this, Kaitlyn more so because she could recall the time that mother did just that.

After dinner the four of us retire to our rooms for the night, Kaitlyn and Azusa surprise me by going to the same room. _Hmm, that room only has one bed. I wonder if they... Well even if they did it's none of my buisness._  
Hanako and I go to our room and I fall asleep with her in my arms and her sweet scent filling my sense of smell completely._ I guess its a good thing my ability's heightened 'all' of my senses, not just my sense of smell, can still hear the alarm if it goes off..._

The following morning at around five A.M I'm woken by a rather loud crash in the front yard. I shoot upwright in an instant. "What the hell was that?"  
"Kyle, whats wrong?" Hanako asks me sleepily, having not heard the crashing sound. "I heard something in the front yard, give me a sec." I rush to Kaitlyns room and knock on the door, loudly to awaken her and Azusa. "Kyle, bro whats the matter? You look like you saw a ghost." I must look a little shaken, can you blame me it sounded like a meteor landed in the yard. "Azusa, I need you to come with me, Katie I need you to go stay with Hanako, keep her safe." Azusa looks intrigued. "Why would you need me to go with you?" I look to her as I answer. "Taking Belladonna with me would be redundant, we have the exact same ability, you on the other hand are a pyrokinetic, you'll come in handy."  
"But why not just take Hanako and let us sleep." Kaitlyn asks, her tiredness evident in her voice. "Because I want to keep Hanako out of harms way and avoid pushing her to use her own pyrokinesis until she has to..." Azusa looks hurt and confused at this. "Wait, so you don't mind putting me in harms way? Also, when did Hanako turn into a pyrokinetic?" I give her a look that says 'your being an idiot' in response to her first question. "Of course I mind, if I thought I could deal with it on my own I would, but I promised Jean that we would be extra cautious and never face any thing potentially dangerous on our own, and as for the second question; Hanako's a Chameleopath, an ability mimic. She gleaned your power when she hugged you yesterday, got the proffessors too as she was walking past behind her."  
"So why not let her practise using them?"  
"I need someone adept in their ability, and in case you hadn't noticed by how avidly Hanako used to avoid contact with you she has a bit of a fear of fire. Now lets go we're wasting time."  
"Ok fine." Azusa and I hurry outside to investigate the source of the sound while Kaitlyn heads to mine and Hanakos room to keep her company.

When Azusa and I get to the crash sight, for want of a better description, what we saw both confused and concerned us. It was a man in a long black leather coat with red lining, with blood red hair and black eyes with red irises.  
"Careful, don't get too close little one."  
"Firestarter..."  
"Firestarter? Really... and you made fun of Nightshade, at least I didn't pick a Stephen King novel..."  
"You really wanna do this right now Nightshade?"  
"You're right. Sorry 'Starter." I look to the guy in the crater and speak a little louder. "You there what are you doing on my front lawn."  
"Ahm sorry _mon ami_ Ah had no ahdea that this was your lahwn." Not only was he speaking english, but he was speaking with a cajun accent, with a hint of south carolinian... _I know that accent..._ "Gambit?!" He looks up at me with confusion in his eyes. "That was mah name for a tahm, but now ah go by the name War. Ah am a Horsemahn of Apocahlypse and ahll will trehmble befoah me!" His comment earns a concerned look from me, and a confused one from Azusa _poor girl can't understand a word he's saying_. "Remy, surely you remember who you are, you can't let Apocalypse get to you like this!" He looks to me at this and takes a hand of cards out of his coat._ Oh crap, his ability is kinetic charge, he can hit us with those things with enough force to send us through the wall._ I have just enough time to think this and grab Azusa and drop her to the ground as he throws the now bright violet cards at us. "Who the hell is this guy?"  
"He 'was' Remy Lebeau, also called Gambit now he claims to be the Horseman of War, one of the four henchmen of Apocalypse that Pheonix warned us about." I respond to Wars follow up attack by coating myself in the poisonous spore produced by my power and running towards him as fast as I could. He charges a rather large rock and throws it toward me, I respond by shaking my arm in its direction and causing the spore on my arm to fly off towards it, vaporising it before it can reach me. I follow up by roundhouse kicking War in the chest and burning a hole in his shirt with the spores on the bottom of my foot. He then hit me with a charged punch, causing his arm to go numb and me to be thrown across the lawn. Azusa sees this and burst into flames, launching herself at War and setting him ablaze too. By the time I look up to them I see War standing there with naught but his pants on and his hair singed and Azusa still completely aflame, the two of them trading punches. Then I hear the front door open and close and look over to see Kaitlyn and Hanako dashing over from the house. Hanako rushes to my side while Kaitlyn rushes into the fight to help Azusa. "Oh my god sweety are you ok?" I groan as I feel a slight burning pain in my ribcage. "Fine Survivour, nothing to worry about, Firestarter's got my back, you and Belladonna just get back inside."  
"Ky-..." _Hana-chan! Codenames, we don't want Apocalypse, or War to find us out. _"Nightshade than, are you sure you're ok?" I look to her and try to send my emotions telepathically; comfort, love. Trying my hardest to comfort her, stop her from worrying. "I'm fine Survivour, just go back inside."  
"Hey Nightshade, get your asses back in the house, your no good to us in your state." Hanako helps me up and we make our way back to the house, but before we can get there an explosion blasts us onto our faces as we're struck in the back by what feels like half a bus, I guess War wants us kept in the frey. "Not so fahst _mon ami _ah have yet to introduce mahself to _la petite chere_" Before we have time to react War has covered the space between us and is looming over the two of us. He reaches down and helps Hanako to her feet... _Big mistake Remy_ I think as Hanako, feigning disorientation (her healing ability having helped her recover before she even hit the ground) tests out her new found power by kinetically charging her whole body and pushing every ounce of charged energy through one hand as she palm strikes War in the chest, hitting him right in the sternum I distinctly hear at least three ribs shatter as he is thrown clear across the lawn, almost eighty metres in distance.  
"Well well well _mon petite chere, _you've got some bite, never done met another mutahnt with mah own powahs befoah now."  
"I only have your powers because you have them..." Hanako looks far more confident than I've ever seen her before now, besides when we're alone of course. I guess she trusts her instincts in the heat of battle and doesn't think too hard on it. By this point I've regained my footing and Azusa and Kaitlyn, a little battered but none the worse for wear have come to our sides. War looks at the four of us, confident, side by side all standing in different ready stances, Hanako hiding behind her fists in a boxing stance while Kaitlyn and I stand back to back in tae kwon do ready positions, Azusa is standing with her hands raised in a karate form that I don't recognise... "Bein the gambelah ah ahm, ah think ahm gunnah cut mah losses, until next tahm _mon ami, vous trois dames._" With that he causes a small explosion to cover his escape with the smoke and he's gone.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter ten - The Aftermath**

After Wars rapid departure from my front lawn there were craters scatters across the grounds, a smouldering ring of flames lay where Azusa initially ignited, a larger one where she and War collided, and a rather large 'U' shaped crater with elongated limbs where Hanako 'tested' her newfound ability on the 'less-than-formidible' Horseman of Apocalypse.

When it became evident that War wouldn't return that night we all went back inside, Hanako and Kaitlyn helping me inside as I was finding it difficult to walk on my own. "I think that mongrel cracked one of my ribs..." Hanako giggles at this. "That's ok babe, I think I 'broke' about four of his in return." She smiles at me as I lean in and kiss her cheek. "Thanks sweety." Azusa looks up to me at this. "Hey, I believe I helped too." Kaitlyn leans over and gives Azusa a peck on the cheek causing her to turn a bright scarlet and turn away in embarrassent. "Feel better now, Azu-nyan?" Kaitlyn asks her with a huge smile. Azusa gives her a playful shove. "Don't be silly Katie."

After the girls drop me gently on the couch Hanako dashes into the kitchen to brew some tea and Azusa and Kaitlyn go back to bed. Hanako comes back in with the tea she'd brewed and I notice as she sets it down that her whole body is tremling. "Hey Hana-chan, you ok?" She looks at me and I notice she has tears in her eyes "No. I'm scared Kyle, I looked out the window earlier and saw you lying there and I thought... I-I thought I'd lost you..." With this she burst into tears. I slide over to her and pull her in to a hug. "I told you before Hanako; I'm not going anywhere. No power in the 'verse can make me." Hanako spent the next twenty minutes crying on my shoulder. By the time she went back to sleep the sun had begun rising through the window, I decided, being the powerful telepath she is, that I may be able to contact the Pheonix. _Jean, can you hear me? We need you here. _I'm not sure whether she hears me or not, until five minutes later the door is nearly torn off its hinges, guess I sounded a little more urgent than I intended. "Kyle, what happened to you?" I go to stand but find that for some reason I'm too weak to do so, instead I reply while staying seated. "We were..." That's as far as I get before my head starts spinning at a rapid speed. _Guess I'm weaker than I thought, we were attacked by the Horseman of War. Jean, it's Gambit, or it was Gambit. Also I think I may be bleeding to death here... How unfortunate. _She reacts rather quickly to this piece of information, pulling out her cellphone and calling someone, it must be an international call because she's suddenly speaking english. "Kurt, I need your help, get Logan here please, as soon as you can." I hear a reply on the other end. "_Ja, richtig_. As soon as I can." Three minutes later there's another knock on the door, standing there is Nightcrawler, Colossus and the Wolverine. "Wel..." I try to welcome them but find myself even weaker than when Jean showed up. "Quickly Logan, he needs a transplant, he's bleeding internally." Wolverine sighs quietly and mutters to himself. "Fine, but you better not need too much bub, it gets uncomfortable if it takes too long." Before I can react Jean's plugged a tube into my arm with the other end in Logans and there's a thick red substance flowing from him into me, Colossus is speaking though I find myself almost unable to hear him; "Do not worry _tovaritshch_, Logan will have you up again _momental'no_." It takes a minute for me to figure out what they're doing and when I do I laugh softly. _Is this really going to work Jean?_ She looks at me before responding. _Of course it will Kyle we've done it before, although never with a mutant, you may get some side effects..._  
_Like what, advanced healing?_  
_It's possible.._ Its at this point in the conversation that I notice my rib moving itself back into place and the hole it punctured in my lung fill in. I stand and remove the tube from my arm, surprised when the needle hole heals too. "Thank you Wolverine, I owe you one."  
"You don't owe me anythin kid, you kicked the shit out of a Horseman, you're alright by my books."  
"Well actually the one that delivered most of the damage is the girl asleep on the couch, besides.. It was only Gambit, not like it was you or Bobby.."  
"True, but monsieur LeBeau can be a handful." It's at this point that Hanako decides to stir from her light sleep. "Kyle, who's that..." She gasps as she recognises the proffessor and sees Nightcrawler. (who, lets face it, stands out) "Logan, Peter, this is Hanako. Hanako, Logan and Peter" Logan and Peter wave at Hanako and she waves back. "Umm I don't mean to be rude but why are you guys here?" I look at her hesitantly. Jean answers before I can ask her to sugar coat it at all. "Well, I was contacted by Kyle here about fifteen minutes ago, he told me about War when I got here and I noticed he was bleeding internally so I called Kurt and asked him to bring Logan along so he could give Kyle a blood transfusion." Hanako looks to me with a fearful look. "Don't look at me like that Hanako, I made you a promise and I intend to keep it." She brightens at this. "So why did you need 'Logan' to perform the transfusion?" Wolverine steps forward to answer this question. "Because of my natural healing ability and my universal blood type, I can transfuse with anyone and anyone that transfuses with me gains my healing ability temporarily, or permenantly in some cases." Jean steps forward and interrupts him after he says this. "Which is what I am hoping will happen in this case, I can see this happening again otherwise, probably more than once.." I have to nod in agreement with her on this point. "That's true, especially considering the only offensive capabilities I have are melee, unless you can think of a way to change that proffessors..." I address my comment to all four of the adults in the room who consider the request and promise to get back to us on the issue. Hanako looks less than pleased with herself about not knowing I was injured, but she also seems happy that I may be able to heal better in the future. "I might go get breakfast ready, Hana-chan could you come give me a hand. Will the four of you be joining us proffessor?"  
"I think not Kyle I have to collect Forge, Bishop and Beast from the airport."  
"And Petey and I are needed back in Moscow, so maybe some other time bub." I smile at the four of them before replying. "Of course, would you be so kind as to show yourselves out, Hanako and I have cooking that needs doing." The four of them give their goodbyes.  
"Later bub." From Wolverine.  
"_Do svidaniya tovarishch." _From Colossus.  
"_Auf weidersehen mein freund." _From Nightcrawler.  
"Until tomorrow Kyle, Hanako.." Is the Pheonixs farewell.

After everyone leaves Hanako and I head into the kitchen and get started on breakfast, pancakes. "Did you want me to go wake the girls Kyle?" I look to Hanako as she asks this and ponder for a moment. "No thats ok Hana-chan, I'll do it." As I say this I grab the coffee pot that has just finished brewing and head into the hall towards Kaitlyn and Azusas room. I open the door and take the lid off the pot, gently wafting the strong aroma towards the two of them who, for some reason, have fallen asleep in each others arms. Kaitlyn is the first to stir and smiles as she sees both me with the coffee pot in my hand and Azusa, whos head is resting on Kaitlyns chest and has her arm snaked across her waist. "Morning bro, what time is it?"  
"Breakfast time, Hanako and I made pancakes." She smiles even broader at this and taps Azusa on the shoulder. "Azu-nyan, breakfast." Azusa groans sleepily and mumbles. "Five more minutes." In Kaitlyns general direction. Then she seems to notice how she is sleeping, and exactly what (or rather who) she's using for a pillow. She squeals and sits bolt upright. "Kaitlyn, how could you let me sleep like that?" She poses this question with a tone of incredulity and a hint of concern. "I just couldn't wake you Azusa, not after how wiped that fight left you, besides... You were so cute." She says her final assessment with a cheeky grin and a wink in Azusas direction. "But its so embarrassing.." She seems to only then notice my presence in the room. "Ohmygod, and your brother saw. Oh could this be any more embarrassing."  
I decide that a little teasing is in order. "Well it could be, I mean I took a photo on my phone before either of you woke up and I was considering posting it online, people love those sorts of pictures..." She looks at me, flabbergasted. "Y-you wouldn't, you didn't, oh pleasepleaseplease say you're joking..." She burys her now bright red face in her hands. "Of course I'm joking Azusa, I barely had time to close the door before Kaitlyn bounced up at the prospect of coffee." at this point Kaitlyn had risen and gone to get dressed in her en-suite. "And speaking of Kaitlyn..." I lower my voice to a barely audible whisper. "You might be surprised to hear this but she's never had a friend like you before, I've never seen her show anyone the affection she gives you, not even our parents. So, I think you might want to... Rephrase, your initial reaction on your way down to breakfast. She may have genuine feelings for you Azusa, think about it.. And even if you're not interested in her in that way, try to let her down easy, don't hurt her too much ok?" I smile as I finish speaking, mostly to take any sting out of my words, then I leave the room still carrying the coffee pot with me and head back into the kitchen.

A few moments later the two girls join Hanako and I in the kitchen.  
_Kyle, do you know why the girls are holding hands like that? And why is Azusas face so bright and cheerful?_  
_I don't know sweety, maybe they had a good nights sleep... _I leave my thought open to interpritation. "Hey guys, where's breakfast?" At this point Hanako and I have both sat at the table and started eating our own food, not knowing how long the girls would take to wake up fully. "It's in the oven, keeping warm." Azusa looks in the oven. "Oh there they are, I'll get them."  
"Ok Azu-nyan, I'll get us some coffee 'kay?" Azusa looks up at Kaitlyn and smiles. "Sounds good.. sweety." Kaitlyns face lights up and turns scarlet simultaniously at what Azusa calls her. _Well now we know why they were holding hands Hana-chan_ I look to Hanako and smile. _I guess so, good for them._ Hanako smiles in return, Kaitlyn sees us and looks suspiciously at me. "It's not polite to talk about other people." I chuckle at her comment. "We're not, it's not my fault Hanako can hear my thoughts." I look haughty as I respond to her accusation, fully intent on teasing her about this new relationship of hers as much as possible. "Azusa shouldn't you use the mitts..?" I ask this as I see her reach into the oven with her bare hands, pull out the plate and put it on the stovetop. "Nah it's ok, I'm burn-proof remember?" I raise an eyebrow at this. "Doesn't it still hurt?" She smiles, replies with a "Not at all" and sits down next to Kaitlyn to eat her breakfast.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter eleven - Ops center**

The rest of the day after Gambit/Wars attack goes on fairly normally, Hanako and I go to the market down the street for groceries and come back to find Azusa and Kaitlyn watching a movie we have no interest in so after putting the groceries away, I go to take my personal shopping (which is actually a surprise gift for Hanako) into my room. When I return I find Hanako sitting at the table with her chess board set up and a hopeful look on her face when she sees me enter the room. I smile at her and join her at the table and we spend the afternoon playing chess. we all go to bed at around ten, Hanako and I to our room, Azusa and Kaitlyn to theirs.

The next morning I hear a polite knock on the front door at around eight, I look over to see Hanako still asleep and decide to let her sleep in. I quietly exit our bed without waking her and go to answer the door, only after I open it do I remember that, due to the humidity of the night before, I'm not wearing a shirt. "Proffessor, nice to see you, are these the men you called for?" Jean falters slightly at my unexpected attire, or lack thereof..  
"Uh... Y-yes they are Kyle, and didn't I say you could call me by my name?" I smile at her. "Sorry Jean, habit I guess..." I hear a heart felt throaty chuckle from behind Jean. "Good for you boy, manners are a hard to come by 'habit' these days. Hank Macoy, Secretary of Mutant Affairs. Pleasure to meet you." He accompanies his greeting with an extended hand which I shake, I only discover it's a bad idea after I do it... "Pleasure's all mine Mister Macoy. Please come in, all of you. would anyone care for a coffee?" I stand aside as I invite them in and allow them to pass so I can close the door behind them. "No thank you, but if it's possible I wouldn't say no to a cup of tea.." I look to Hank as he makes this request. "You may be better off waiting a little while for that sir, my brewing skills are rather poor, our resident tea maiden is still sleeping, she had a long night." _Hanako, sweety are you up yet? _I get a surprisingly distraught answer._ Yes, where are you? I-I woke up and... and you were gone... y-you scared me Kyle..._  
_I'm sorry Hana-chan, I wanted to let you sleep in and I heard a knock on the door._  
_Oh, who is it? _I chuckle to myself at the quick change of character. _It's the Pheonix. _I hear a rustling from upstairs and suddenly I see Hanako rushing down from our room in her nightgown. "Umm, Hana-chan, the proffessor isn't the only one down here..." She sees Hank, Bishop and Forge in the foyer, squeals quietly and runs back upstairs to get changed _Why didn't you tell me that before I came down stairs?_ I chuckle quietly at her. _Sorry sweety, but in my defence I didn't think you'd come rushing downstairs in your pyjamas.._ The next minute Hanako is once again descending the stairs, this time properly clothed in a pair of jeans, a denim jacket over a thin lace top and a blue denim cap pushing her hair over her face to hide her scarring. "Wow, Hana-chan you look great. Hank, Forge, Bishop, this is my girlfriend Hanako. Hana-chan, these are the men who have voluntered their time to help us set up our X-men op centre." Hanako flashes them one of her rare shy smiles. "Nice to meet you guys." Beast moves foreward to shake her hand and she shies away slightly. I decide to interject with an explaination before Hank gets offended. "Hanako's a chameleopath Mr Macoy, she can aquire the ability of other mutants with just a touch..." Hank nods his understanding. "I understand Kyle, Not many people would want a power that causes them to shed on the furniture..." He turns back to her with a smile. "Hank Macoy pleasure to meet you." She nods to him in response. "Hank is somewhat of a tea conniseur Hana-chan, would you mind making him a cup?" She smiles at this. "Sure, would anyone else like one while I'm at it?" Forge and Bishop both shake their heads while Pheonix and I both nod and thank her for the offer. She darts into the kitchen to brew four cups of tea, Hank offers to join her, seeing as his presence isn't really needed for the planning phase of the op centers construction. Meanwhile I lead our visitors into the living room. "So proffessor, any thoughts on the exact location of this op center?" She defers to Forge for an answer to that question. "Well Kyle with your permission I have a new technology called a tunneling stone, with this I can create entire rooms and halls underground in the blink of an eye, and I was hoping to do just that for this op center." Bishop interjects after he says this; "Also with my ability, we can amp up the crystals to make rooms far larger than they could normally." As Bishop speaks, Forge produces the crystal in question and shows it to me. "How long would it take to set the whole thing up?" He takes the stone back as he replies. "Probably not much longer then twenty minutes but then we have to add the equipment for the rooms, a tech lab, a Cerebro copy, danger room, elevator, and of course a locker room for your suits."  
"I was wondering about that, proffessor what sort of suits will we be wearing?"  
"Well I was going to try to get you suits like the 'new X-men' wear, black with a personalised colour trim of your choice. And additional personalisations of course.." I nod as she says this. "Sounds good." _Of course there is the problem of potential colour confliction..._ I think to myself.

As the day progresses the op center goes up without a hitch and the technology that goes into it is like something I've never seen before, by the time the entire center is set up and we get to the locker room, I'm not entirely surprised to find the room itself asking us for our uniform design preferances. Azusa pipes up first. "Can I have a dark orange trim, sleeveless. I want it to symbolise my powers, also I don't really like sleeves." She says the last part with a coy grin. Certainly miss Nakano. Is the reply of what I can only assume is an Artificial Intelligence. Hanako speaks up next. "I would like purple, because it's my favourite colour... A-also, long sleeves if you could please.." Of course. I'm uncertain whether the AI deliberatly avoided using Hanako's last name or it was just coincidence, either way Katie is asking for her colour before I can ponder it much longer. "Can I have a dark shade of pink please, and I don't want sleeves either, also if you could; shorten the legs too please.." Not a problem miss McArthur. _Ok now I know it was deliberate._ "I'll have a rich dark violet. Sleeveless with a half-length cloak, and a hood." Very well sir, rather odd that the only man chooses a feminine colour.. but that is your choice. "It's to match the colour of my powers.." Understandable.. As the room makes our uniforms for us and we try them on, I test my outfit. Lifting the hood to test its depth, I'm pleased that it hides all but the lower half of my face in the cowls shadows. I decide to test its resistance to my ability and am surprised to find that rather than melting through it, my spore surfaces on top of the material and appears to have caused no damage to it. "Hey Azusa, light up for me would ya?" She looks at me and turns scarlet. "What?! No way, if I do that my clothes burn off, you know that, thats why I stayed lit after our fight." I look at her disparagingly. "Just do it, please." She sighs. "Fine, but if this is just some ploy to see me naked I swear to God I'm going to kick your ass." She ignites as she says this, and goes out soon after. She looks down and is shocked to see that her uniform is still intact. "Computer, these uniforms are similar to the ones the Fantastic four use aren't they, they can alter themselves to our abilities, they're completely immune to us..." Correct mister McArthur. "Call me Kyle, it's quicker." Very well, Kyle, your assumtion is accurate, although incomplete. these uniforms are made to be immune to each of your specific powers, this was particularly difficult to do considering miss.. "Hanako." I interrupt the A.I to spare it from making the same mistake that I did. Yes, Hanakos abilities are many and varied.. Before I can pose any more questions to the computer Pheonix contacts us all telepathically _X-men, your prescence is needed in the mission room.._ The four of us hurry to the mission room in our uniforms, none of us having thought to change first. When we get there the Pheonix informs us that she has two missions and is going to split us into pairs. "Due to the seriousness of these missions, I'm sending Hanako with Kaitlyn and Azusa with Kyle, the last thing I need is you four to be too distracted by each other to be able to find your targets. Nightshade, you and Firestarter are on a recruitment job, the computer has picked up a mild mutant energy spike in downtown Saitama. Belladonna, you will take Survivour and scout out a major spike in the warehouse district, recon only. You see anything dangerous you call it in immediatly, understand?" Hanako and Kaitlyn nod their assent. "Yes proffessor." I look to the Pheonix. "Pheonix, how will we know what, or who we're looking for?" She points to a glowing blue circle on the ground. "The computer will teleport you to the building your target's in." I look to the teleporter. "Simple enough, but who're we looking for do we know?"  
"You're looking for a mutant with the ability of cryokinesis."  
"So we're looking for a mutant like Bobby Drake?"  
"Yes, but a preliminary cerebro scan shows that the mutant is female, and only fifteen, but given the capabilities of a cryokinetic mutant we 'must' get to her before War does." Kaitlyn pipes up at this. "So are we assuming that War will be at the warehouse we're going to?"  
"We aren't assuming anything, but given the size of the spike if I were you I would be hoping it's War, if not it could be far more dangerous.." 

Azusa and I stepped onto the teleporter and arrived at our destination. As soon as we get there I see the girl we were looking for, Blonde hair and ice blue eyes, about Azusas height, slim build and currently being grabbed by a couple of guys and dragged into an alleyway, so either her powers were new to her and she couldn't control them, or the thugs had power inhibiters. I saw the symbol on their shoulder that marked them as what they were; Purifiers, anti-mutant militia. "Firestarter, over there. Hurry, get up behind them. I'll come from the front you flank them from above." She nods her assent to the plan. "OK" and leaps into the air speeding off before anyone could notice her, I run across the street and yell to the purifiers as I get to the alleyway. "Hey scumbags, why don't you pick on someone your own size." It's only after saying this that I notice some of them are considerably taller than me, great.. _C'mon Azusa where are you_ I think as I trigger my powers, coating my whole body in the toxic spore. "You're going to regret that mutie." The purifier tries to intimidate me. "So you're trying to intimidate me are you? That might work if you were actually, well intimidating." I chuckle as I say this, trying to psych out the poor thug. It seems to work as he baulks at the prospect of fighting something so notably unthreatened by him. He decides that brute force may be the best option here and rushes me head down in an attempt to tackle me, I react with a sidestep and an uppercut that hits him clean in the chest, cracking a couple of his ribs and melting a fist sized hole in his coat and shirt, the spore working overtime and eating its way through his whole uniform in seconds. moments later he's lying on the ground, shirtless and wheezing, clutching at his busted ribcage. His two friends see this all occur in mere minutes and turn to run. Only to find a burning Azusa standing beind them, hands on her hips, waiting for them to try running past her. They seem to be weighing their odds against her, after all they don't know if she can fight or not, so I decide to end it before it begins. "You seem to be debating whether to try rushing her or not, want my advice? Don't." She gives them a somewhat terrifying grin as I say this and they drop to their knees and put their hands behind their heads in the universal symbol of surrender. Azusa works on binding them as I check on their captive to see if she's concious. "Hey, you ok? It's alright now, we're here to help." I say with a smile as my spore dissapates and I look normal again. She looks at me and asks. "Who are you?"  
"We're the Japanese faction of the X-men, and we picked up your mutant signature, we figured you may be in danger, there's an incredibly powerful mutant out recruting for, lets just call him the bad guy for now, I'll fill you in at the mansion later." As I say this I offer her my hand. "'Starter, you get the purifiers, we're bringing them back with us, see what the Pheonix wants to do with them." She nods at me and shows she has hold of the rope binding the three purifiers together. _Proffessor, can you hear me, we've got the cryokinetic girl, and a couple of captives, could you teleport us back? _Rather than reply telepathically, she simply teleports the six of us back to the mansion.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter twelve - Total loss of control**

When we get back we see that Kaitlyn and Hanako are back already, Hanako looking white as a sheet, her uniform covered in blood and Kaitlyn lying on a bed in the med-bay looking battered and bruised. "Hanako, what happened?!" I ask as Azusa rushes to Katies side. "They were expecting us... The s-source of the power spike... Was the p-purifiers... T-the whole thing was a-an ambush..." Hanako says this through a tear stained face. "Damn! I knew I should've gone with you!" I reach over and pull Hanako into a hug and she dissolves into tears as she rests her head on my chest. "I'm so sorry Kyle... I called out to Jean as s-soon as I could... But Kaitlyn had already been hit, they had stun rifles... It hit her a-and threw her across the w-warehouse." I start stroking her hair in an attempt to calm her. "This is not your fault Hanako, if it had've been you and I there, they would've been slaughtered before they could blink for putting you in danger." As I say this a dark, vindictive tone seeps into my voice. Its at this point that I make my mind up. I walk over to the three huddled purifier captives and whisper to them with a seething tone of anger in my voice; "Your friends are all going to die for what they've done to my crew..." I then turn away and address the AI. "Computer, re-enter Hanako's mission co-ordinates into the teleporter." Request acknowledged. _Kyle, what the hell are you doing? _I hear Jeans question, but ignore it. "Time for some payback." I mutter darkly as I step into the teleporter and block my mind out completely, forcing the Pheonix and Hanako into the dark. As I arrive at the location of Hanakos mission I yell at the top of my lungs. "PURIFIERS! SHOW YOURSELVES!" Suddenly the whole room fills with purifiers, and in the corner I see a stalker mech, undermounted miniguns on it. _not a problem for me.._ I coat myself in my spore, little do the purifiers know that this spore isn't just fireproof but given it can desintegrate non-organic material, it's bulletproof too. After they see my reaction to their appearance they open fire, while they shoot me I wait for them all to run out of bullets before I spin as fast as I can, the spin launches my spore in all directions continuously as I produce more while it flys off. I hear screams coming from all directions as the spore launches in a more potent form than ever before. My senses fill with the smell of melting flesh and all thats left standing when I stop spinning is the mech, too far away to be hit by my attack. I run towards it at top speed, drop to my back and slide beneath it grabbing both of its legs as I pass under it, coating them in the corrosive spore. I stand up behind it as its legs start to dissolve from the ankle up. I watch as the mech melts before me and wait 'till its gone before I search the rest of the warehouse for anymore purifiers. After finding the warehouse empty I grab some random purifier tech that's lying around and contact Pheonix as I head back to the middle of the room. _Ready for retrieval... Jean._ I feel the slight pull from the teleporter as I rematerialize in the op centers mission room. I stand there for a mere three seconds before I feel two hands slap me simultaneously on opposite sides of my face. "Ow!" I reach up and rub my face where the two, decidedly different sized hands had hit me. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING KYLE! You could have been killed!"  
"Hanako what the hell, that hurt. I'm fine, and I wasn't going to let those bastards off the hook for ambushing you two. And why the hell did you slap me Azusa?" She looks slightly ashamed of herself when I say this but rallys to answer my question. "Never go anywhere alone, 'your' promise to the proffessor, not mine. Yet you're the one that broke it!" I look between the two of them at this. "I couldn't let what happened to Katie go un-punished." Azusa gives me a flawless mirror of my trademark 'you're being an idiot' look. "And you think I wouldn't want to come with you for that?"  
"It would have been too dangerous for you to tag along. I'm bulletproof, you're not. plus you aren't immune to 'my' power either! I'm done arguing about this, I have to get this tech to Forge and see if he can figure it out before he leaves." I walk out before either of the girls can object to my bluntness.

I get to the lab, pleased to see both Forge and Hank there. "Hey guys, got a present for ya." They turn in response to my comment and Forge smiles widely as he sees what I have slung under my arm. "Where the hell did you find that?" I laugh softly at his reaction. "Picked it up from a purifier base, I would've gotten you a mech to play with too, but it kind of melted..." I say this with a coy grin on my face and Forge laughes at me. Hank turns with a startled look on his face. "You took on an entire purifier base alone, are you mad?!" I look over to him, letting the darkness I felt after seeing what the purifiers did to my sister and my girlfriend seep into my voice. "They hurt my crew, no-body hurts my crew and lives to talk about it..." Hank looks a little concerned at the darkness in me. "That's concerning, better keep comments like that from the pheonix Kyle." I grin when he says this. "Will do Hank, thanks for the heads up." I drop off the tech in the lab and head for the locker room to check on our new 'recruit.' "Hey, how are you feeling. My name's Kyle, unless we're on mission, than it's Nightshade. Have you met everyone yet?" She smiles at me and shakes her head in response as she looks shyly at the ground. "I-I'm Rebecca, my family calls me Becky, or they used to..." She starts crying softly. "My ability manafested in the middle of a car park after a fire started, my whole family was there and the sprinklers were on, my ability froze the entire car park and my family was caught in the cold snap." I look stunned at her, the girl that accidentally killed her entire family. "That's terrible, what caused the fire do you remember? Usually powers manafest when the adolescent body is put under extreme physical or psychological stress." She thinks on this for a moment. "A car exploded, I don't know what caused it but thats what triggered the sprinklers... And my power too I guess." I smile at her and place a hand on her shoulder. "Than it wasn't your fault in the slightest, you had no control over your power."

Hanako's still mad at me by the time we go to bed so she trys to keep her distance without kicking me out of the bed, even when she's mad she still can't bring herself to be a total bitch. I'm having trouble sleeping, not due to Hanako's coldness, more out of fear that I could so easily take so many lives without even blinking. I decide to get changed back into my uniform, reveling slightly in the anonymity the hood provides and go for a walk downstairs. Getting to the kitchen I pour myself a glass of water and head down to check on Kaitlyn in the med bay, happy to see her still resting, but also a little concerned about her not having woken at all yet. I spend the next half hour watching my little sister, so frail and damaged. I hear the door behind me open and close and I turn to see Azusa standing in the doorway. "Hi." Is all she says to me before she sits down at Kaitlyns side. "I'm surprised you weren't here when I got here Azusa." She looks at me with a glare that tells me she isn't in the mood for humour. "I've been here since you got back from the warehouse, so sue me for needing some coffee." I look at her, downcast. "Sorry, humour's my deflector to avoid meaningful conversation. I think I'm gunna go train for a while, maybe if I exhaust my body enough I'll be able to sleep without thinking too much." I turn to leave, headed for the danger room. "Wait, Kyle what are you talking about?" I turn back to her with a sigh. "It's just... those purifiers were human Azusa. I took human lives, at least a dozen, without even blinking. I didn't think of them as human, they weren't people, they were the ones responsible for putting Kaitlyn where she is now, for hurting my Hana-chan.. I wanted them dead Azusa, I wanted to make them suffer so badly, that's why I could barely talk to you two when I got back. There's blood on my hands Azusa-chan, there's red in my ledger and I ca- I can't get it out..." I start crying softly as I drop to my knees and start punching the ground. "Kyle stop, don't do that you'll hurt yourself." As I hit the floor I feel my hood drop. "At least it'll be proof I can still feel things." Azusa rushes to my side and holds my hands down with one of hers and hugs me with the other. "Kyle, the fact that you're feeling like this is proof that you're still a good person." I look up at Azusa and before she can mask it, I see the fear in her eyes. "You say that, but this is almost as frightening for you as it is for me, I can tell." I spend the next five minutes crying in Azusas arms. Suddenly a sound causes us both to look up as Kaitlyn sits up in her bed, slightly dazed. Azusa dashes to her side and I stand wiping my eyes and blinking the tears away as I take Kaitlyns other hand. "Hey, what's up with you bro, you look like you've been crying for hours." I give her a weak smile. "Nah, just like the last five minutes. I just couldn't stand seeing you like this sis, thats all." I look meaningfully at Azusa as I say this, she nods at me. "How's Hanako, did she heal alright I saw her take a hit or two before I passed out." I smile at her to reassure her. "Hana-chan healed fine, she's ok, a little pissed at me but fine none the less." Kaitlyn looks confused at this. "Why's Hana-chan pissed at you?" I look away from her at this, ashamed of myself. "Well, I kinda..." Azusa decided to back me up. "He went to the warehouse that your mission was in and got some payback..." Kaitlyn looks even more confused at this. "What do you mean he went there and got payback..?" I look away at this. "I went there, called out the guys that attacked you two and I sort of... Killed them.. all of them." Kaitlyn looks stunned at this, totally shocked. "You killed all of them, that warehouse was full of guys, there was at least like twenty of them." I look at her in mild surprise. "Are you confused or concerned that I managed to empty the warehouse. Side note, were you aware that in high enough doses our spore can melt organic matter too?" She looks surprised at this. "Really? Thats both disturbing and cool. And I'm surprised, and a little concerned bro. I didn't know you were that cold-blooded." I look away in shame at this. "I know sis, I'm not proud of what I did, I just couldn't stand how battered you looked when I got back, Hanako looked dissheveled too, she was covered in blood. It just made me snap y'know, I couldn't stand it I needed to make them feel how you felt lying in that bed, I needed to make them suffer." As I say this I can feel the earlier darkness seep its way back into my voice. Kaitlyn looks at me in surprise, and a little fear, and before I can react she's stood up out of her bed and hugged me. As she hugs me I feel all the darkness, the anger I've felt since my return from Saitama with Azusa and Becky dissapate, like it was leaving me and going into Katie. "Sis, what's happening?" She looks up at me. "You didn't feel it did you? You were using your power, you didn't even notice it, but you were so angry you'd completely lost control of your ability, so I did what you do to help me regain control, I gave you a hug..."  
"It's true Kyle, your eyes were pitch black when your hood fell." I look at Azusa as she says this then I look down to Katie and pull her in to a tighter hug. "Thanks sis, I don't know why but it worked."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter thirteen - Cold Snap**

The next day while I prepare breakfast in the kitchen for the five of us I call out telepathically to Hanako. _Hana-chan, I get you might still be mad at me sweetheart, but I made you breakfast. Its French toast, seasoned with cinnamon just the way you like it... _I tentatively hold my breath, biting my lower lip as I await her response. _Aww that's so sweet Kyle, I can't stay mad at you... I'll be right down just give me a minute to get dressed._ I serve up her breakfast and make her a cup of vanilla citrus tea to accompany it. Also, strategically placed infront of her plate is the present I'd bought her a few days ago, a silver necklace with an Amethyst in the shape if a flower hung from it. When she sits down I smile at her and give her a hug and a peck on the cheek. She looks surprised when she sees the necklace. "Trying to buy me off with gifts?" She raises an eyebrow at me. "No, I'll have you know I bought that when we went to the markets, day before yesterday. I figured I should give it to you now, no more holding off on it. I didn't want to give it to you because it seemed tacky. Its a Nightshade pendant, so now, even when I'm not by your side, I'll always be right there with you..." Her face turns a rich scarlet at this and a smile wide as the Amazon river breaks out on it. "Oh Kyle, that's so sweet..." She stands briefly to hug me before sitting back down for her breakfast. "So, what's the plan for today Hana-chan?" She smiles at me, she seems to really like that pet name. "Not much, I was hoping to go shopping but after last night it might not be such a good idea." I look at her when she says this. "Don't worry sweety, I don't think they'll be dumb enough to try that again. So, anywhere in particular you felt like shopping, maybe a book store? Tell you what, we'll go with Kaitlyn, Azusa and Becky, make a day of it. We could even find a nice karaoke bar." I suggest this with a small grin, having heard from the proffessor of Hanako's love of karaoke. She lights up with that. "Sounds great hun."

An hour later the five of us were heading into Saitama for a round of karaoke and some shopping. By mid afternoon we find ourselves in a quiet karaoke bar. Hanako is listening to Kaitlyn and Azusa perform a duet while she reads a new book I bought her. Becky is out getting drinks and I stand at the back of the room watching the girls sing and Hanako read, it's a calming sight. _This right here is why I did what I did Hana-chan. _I think to her after seeing everything the room encompasses. _What are you talking about Kyle? _I see her look around then look at me, confused. I send her the image of what I'm seeing, from my perspective. My beautiful girlfriend, my highly excitable kid sister, having a wonderful time with her own beautiful (though not as beautiful as mine...) girlfriend. _This, this is worth protecting, I saw Kaitlyn in the med-bay and I guess I just snapped, I saw that I'd failed to protect what I wanted to protect, needed to keep alive. I saw how those Purifiers made me fail and I wanted to punish them._ She looks at me and smiles weakly. _I get it babe, I do. When I saw what War did to you I wanted to tear him to pieces, I wanted the man dead so badly Kyle. So yeah, I get it, thats not what upset me. What upset me is that you had the stupid idea that you had to do it on your own, you didn't even stop to ask me or Azusa if we wanted to tag along, you were gone for five whole minutes Kyle! I was worried sick about you for five minutes, I didn't know if you'd survived or not. For all I knew you were lying dead in a ditch. I didn't know you were bulletproof until 'after' you got back._ I look at her guiltily. _You're right, I'm sorry. I didn't even think of that, I just went blank and reacted. I had no intentions of upsetting you, just the opposite, I was doing it in part to protect you._

We spend the next half hour singing, Hanako and I sing a song to each other, mine was 'Don't wanna miss a thing' by Aerosmith, hers was 'Wind beneath my wings' by Bette Midler. After her song I walked up to her and gave her a kiss with more emotion in it then I ever had before. "Hey, lets do a duet." She smiles at me. "What did you have in mind?" I think for a minute before suggesting 'Endless love' the Lionel Richie & Diana Ross version. Just as we finish our song and Hanako kisses me for the second time that day, I hear a loud crash from outside. "What the hell was that?" I look outside and see a large dust cloud with a person knelt in the middle of it, a crater surrounding them. my mind flashes back to our encounter with War. "Not again." The four of us run outside to see War rise from the ground, look around and see the four of us, then keep scanning and see Becky trying her hardest to hide in the corner. He smiles when he sees her and runs toward her, throwing cards at us to stop us from getting to her first. By the time the four of us can move, War has a hold of Becky, one arm around her neck headlock style. "Becky!" I look to War with frustration in my eyes. "Let her go Gambit, she's not a part of this." He smiles at this. "Oh but she is _mon ami_, this girl is a mutant, and ah powahfuhl one... She will make a fahne Hoahsman of Apocahlypse." Becky starts crying at this. "Help me Nightshade please."  
"I'm sorry Becky, there's nothing 'I' can do." I put emphasis on I, hoping she'll get the message. Unfortunatly she doesn't. "Please, someone help me." She starts screaming. _Hana-chan, I need you to talk to Becky, telepathically. _Hanako looks at me. _What do you need me to say?_ I smile to Becky and try to reassure her. _Just two words; Cold snap._ Hanako looks confused at this but does it anyway._ Becky, its Hanako. Kyle wanted me to tell you; Cold snap_. I see Beckys eyes widen when she hears this and I nod to her, almost imperceptably. She closes her eyes, starts crying softly and suddenly a chill wind fills the air. I see the tear on her cheek freeze as I contact the proffessor. _Pheonix, I need you to teleport the four of us back to the mansion._ Rather than reply I once again feel the familiar tug of the teleporter and before we leave I see Becky start to freeze the entire street, herself and War included. "Kyle, why the hell didn't you grab Becky with the teleporter too?" I look to Azusa as she asks this. "Because War had too tight a hold on her, we would have had a Horseman right in the middle of the op center..."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter fourteen - The Sword and its Creator**

I was loathe to leave Becky to War, but there was no visible alternative. "Hana-chan I need you in Cerebro, see if you can track Becky without being noticed." Hanako nods at this and hurrys out of the room. "What about us two bro, what do you want us to do?" _When did I become the team leader? _"Nothing comes to mind sis, though I think you would benefit from some time in the Danger room, Azusa you're welcome to join her." They nod and leave the room, heading to the Danger room, as they leave I find myself trying to rub the stress out of my eyes. _Everything ok Kyle? _I look up to see the Pheonix standing there, having totally forgotten about her she catches me off guard. _Fine ma'am, just can't believe that we left Becky behind._ "You were right before Kyle, had you tried to bring Becky with you it would have dragged War along too." I sigh at this. "I know, but it still sucks. I think I might head to the lab, work on trying to find something that my powers don't effect.." Pheonix looks slightly confused at this. "Why?" I look at her with my trademark dispariaging look. "Projectiles." I state simply before leaving the room.

In the lab I find the computer, who is trying to find itself a name. I suggest H.I.R.O which stands for High Intelligence Robotic Organism. After expressing its gratitude and favour of the new name I find it to be very helpful in my quest for a projectile weapon. That's not to say it made the search any easier. "It would seem there's nothing inexpensive that my power can't melt through." So it would seem... "What have we found so far that it can't effect, besides Adamantium and Vibranium?" Well, there is also the gold-titanium alloy that Iron mans suits are made from... "Not very cheap for a projectile, but could that material be turned into a blade, effectively? I know Iron mans armour is fairly effective but would it be as effective as a weapon?" Only one way to find out Kyle. "Can you synthesise it Hiro?" Not a problem my friend, is a shinai blade fine with you? "Perfect."

An hour later I'm woken by Hanakos hand on my shoulder. "Kyle, sorry to wake you, but I can't find Becky with Cerebro... Neither can Jean." Also your weapon is finished, but I did not wish to wake you either... "Thanks Hiro, I'll be right there Hana-chan, just let me get a look at this sword Hiro's built for me." Hanako looks confused, having never heard the computers name before. "Hiro?" That would be me Hanako, it stands for High Intellegence Robotic Organism. "Oh, handy, shorter than computer too." Hanako smiles as she hears Hiros name. "I like it. Did you choose it yourself Hiro? With Kyles help yes miss. I get a little impatient at this digression. "The sword Hiro." Of course sir. Suddenly a three foot blade appears on the table before me, I pick it up and swing it experimentally. "Are we sure my powers won't affect this?" Certain sir, you may test it if you do not believe me. I coat my hand in my spore and lower the tip of the sword to the ground, allowing the spore to slide down the length of the blade, then give it an experimental swing in the direction of the target Hiro set up for me to test it against, I'm pleased when the target dissapates, but there's no visible damage to the blade, or handle of my new sword. "Its perfect Hiro, now if you could make a tanto blade for me too, and a katana for Kaitlyn." I look to Hanako. "You can bet she'll want one the moment she sees mine." I smile at her, and she smiles at my comment. "True, but why the tanto?" My smile broadens into a wolfish grin. "Two swords is always better than one." She laughs at this and leads the way to Cerebro as I sheathe my new blade and attatch the sheathe to the hip of my uniform, which I put on after returning from the city, just in case...

When we get to Cerebro it's to find a disgruntled Pheonix grumbling at the machine. "I'm sorry Kyle, we can't find Becky anywhere, we just lost her suddenly for no visible reason.." I look at her in mild surprise, feigned of course as Hanako has already informed me of the curcumstances. "Just out of curiousity, can you find Gambit?" She nods. "Yes we found War without any trouble, but theres no guaruntee that they are still together.." I shake my head when I hear what she says. "No Jean you misunderstand, I didn't say War, I said Gambit. They may be the same body but after fighting the bastard twice I can tell you with certanty that they are two very different minds..." Understanding dawns on Pheonixs face, Hanakos too. "Let me try..." She hooks herself back up to Cerebro and concentrates hard for about ten minutes. "No there's no sign of Gambit..." I shake my head sadly. "There's the problem, you can't find Becky because she isn't Becky anymore, she was captured for recruitment, War's Horsemanned her already" Hanako giggles at this, I look at her with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sorry sweety, but did you just use the word Horseman as a verb?" She giggles again, this time I concede to her humour and join her with a quiet chuckle. "I guess I did, nevertheless that is the reason you can't find Becky anymore, from Cerebros perspective, she no longer exsists. I guess we know who horseman number three is." Pheonix stood at this. "If Apocalypse stays true to form, which is to say that he follows the passages of Revelation to the letter, his first horseman, as it always has been in the past was Pestilence, second was War, third will be Famine and the fourth will be Death." I nod at this. "Yeah, but is Becky Famine or Death?" Pheonix cringes at my inquiry. "Let us hope for our own sakes that she has become Famine." I sigh and turn to leave. "Kyle, where are you going?" Hanakos concern is evident, her voice is laced with it. "Don't wory Hana-chan, I'm just going to kick the girls out of the danger room and have a real training session with my new toy." I pat the hilt of my new sword as I say this to accentuate the fact that I'm going to train.

Five minutes later I'm standing in the middle of the Danger room, surprised to find Kaitlyn and Azusa already gone. "Hiro, load up a training program for me please, purifiers and, just for fun throw a stalker mech in too." Request acknowleged. suddenly the room changes as I find myself surrounded by tangible holograms of purifier soldiers with a stalker mech loitering at the edge of the frey. I draw my sword and act fast, coating the blade and myself in a highly potent dose of my spore, the strength that melts flesh. First I decide to deal with the large number of purifiers surrounding me, not that I could get to the stalker at the moment anyway. I dash quickly to one side of the group circling me, slash at a couple then dart back into the center before they can react. Suddenly a thought occurs to me, why slash when I can fling? I take a wild heavy upward swing at the mech in the background, and smile when my spore flies off the end of the blade and sprays itself in the direction of the stalker, hitting not only it, but anything between me and it as well. With only half a dozen purifiers left after the stalker melts from the center out, I decide to dispach them one-on-one, needing to practise not only my powers but my swordsmanship too. The remaining units are all melee fighters, armed with swords of their own. "Come get me." I taunt the purifier forces as they pull their circle in tighter and strike one or two at a time. One swings an overhead at me which I block with ease, another decides for a thrust strike, bad idea in a formation as tight as theirs. Not only do I deflect the thrust, I manage to send it through the lung of one of his allys who, upon seeing it was an ally that stabbed him, retaliated with a thrust through the offending teammates face _two less_ I think as the wounded man falls out of the circle, well more of a square now... "Who's next?" Another two decide to strike at once, both overhead, side by side. Rather than block or deflect their attack I simply dart under it and stab first one, then the other fatally. Only two remain. "I tire of this." I say, in a mocking bored voice. I slash my blade in a side strike at them. They look confused, probably because I'm about half a foot too far away to hit them with my sword, then confusion turns to anguish as my spore starts to disintegrate them the same way it did to their stalker ally mere moments before. Simulation completed, total time; three minutes fourty-one seconds, a personal best. "Was that your attempt at humour Hiro?" Indeed sir, was it not adequite? "No, it was good. Just wasn't expecting an AI to crack jokes thats all." Understandable than reply, I simply turn and leave, heading upstairs to the kitchen.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter fifteen - Another mutant**

The following day was our first school day since Wars attack and the four of us were walking to school together and chatting amicably as we go.  
When we file into the classroom I'm surprised to see Koizumi already in class. "Hey Koizumi. How was your weekend?" He looks at me when I ask this and raises an eyebrow. "It was fine, why?" I shrug. "Just making conversation..." I'm spared his response by Proffessor Greys entry into the room. "Ok class take your seats, I thought I'd start off the week with science, everyones favourite." She says this with a smile, one that only Hanako and I return. The class proceeds as normal, since the segregation Hanako and I noticed a considerable drop in Koizumis contributions to the class, not to mention his work speed and grades. _Maybe he was reading his teachers, and Jean isn't letting him. _I think to myself, taking care to shield my mind as I do, in case he's evesdropping.

Before we know it class is over and the four of us are heading home when suddenly we're getting pulled into the mission room via teleporter. "Why did you just teleport us home?" To my surprise it's not Pheonix that answers, but Hiro. My apologies Kyle, the database got hit with a spike of mutant energy, preliminary scanning indicates that it is an adult mutant. "Ok girls suit up meet back in five." As I say this I begin taking my school shirt off, having worn my X-men uniform under my clothing.. Just in case. The girls rush off to the locker room to get changed and after I finish removing my school uniform I speak again. "Hiro, could you send these up to my room and get me my swords please." Of course sir.

Five minutes later the girls are suited up and enter the mission room to await the briefing from Hiro. When they enter they're greeted with the site of me with a shinai at my hip and a tanto sheathed at the small of my back, the handle poking its way out from my side. "Hey bro, where's my sword?!" I give Hanako a meaningful look when Kaitlyn asks me this and she giggles when I catch her eye. "Hiro, could you answer the ladys question please." Without a sound Hiro materializes Kaitlyns sword on the table in front of her. "They're made of a gold-titanium alloy, like Iron mans armour. Completely immune to our powers, we coat the blade in our spore and we can use the blade to slingshot it further than we could throw with our arms." She smiles at this. "Best present ever bro, thanks." I nod at her response before talking to Hiro again. "Hiro, can we have our mission assignments please." I am sorry sir, but it is your job to assign them not mine. All I do is find the sources. I sigh. _I knew he was going to say that._ Hanako giggles again, having heard my thought. "Ok. First off, Hanako; we need to find out what sort of mutant we're looking for, I need you in Cerebro to tell me, take a headset and when your done you can play mission support from here." Hanako looks at me when I say this, as if I've just shouted 'I like to light my own farts.'  
"Why the hell would you not want me to come with you?" She looks hurt when she says this and I look to her with what I hope is a face of compassion. "Hana-chan, I don't want you with us because if this is another ambush I need someone on the other side of that teleporter with the capability to react instantly and pull the girls out. I can't leave that up to Hiro, no offence Hiro.." It is okay sir, I am a machine, I do not get offended. Hanako responds to this with a nod and a telepathic _Ok_ before heading to Cerebro to do as she was requested. Azusa pipes up after she leaves, responding to Hiro, having not heard Hanako respond. "Well I do, why the hell would she need to pull us out? You think Katie and I can't handle an ambush?" I decide to favour her with my trademark 'you're being an idiot' look once more _I seem to look at her like that a fair bit..._ "The last time Kaitlyn got caught in an ambush, she was comatose for a day and a half. And as I've told you many times, you aren't immune to our ability, the last thing I want to be responsible for if I have to react in that situation is the death of a team-mate, particularly one that Katie is so attatched to." Azusa sighs at this, once again conceding that, while she may be helpful for recon or interfereance, she is less than helpful fighting alongside me in a battle with overwhelming odds. "Fine, than why don't I just stay here and play mission control, that way you three can all go and be immune to your stupid power together!" I look at her and see the flame of anger in her eyes. I make a placating gesture in her direction in an attempt to calm her down, but before I can speak Kaitlyn says her piece. "Azu-nyan, please don't be angry with Kyle. He's just looking out for his future sister-in-law." She says this with a flirtatious smile and a wink in her direction and Azusa can't help but smile and blush at her comment. "Katie... Kyle, I'm sorry. You're right, the last thing you want is my death on your hands, and the last thing I want is to be lost to my Katie for ever, all because of my own overconfidence..." A tear rolls down her cheek and before I can react she's rushed towards me and is hugging me tightly, all I can think to do is return the hug. "Azusa, it wouldn't be your overconfidence that kills you in that situation but my carelessness, I wouldn't be able to live with that, I may treat you in a way that makes you feel useless but I assure you that is not my intent when I do... I just want to keep my crew, my.. family, safe..." Azusa looks at me when I say this with surprise in her eyes. "But why are you going out of your way to keep Hanako out of the frey, she's the least likely of all of us to actually die..." I nod, conceding her point as a truth. "Maybe, but I can't help but feel like I should be protecting her, not relying on her powers to protect her for me. That's another reason I want you and Katie brought back here if anything goes wrong, because even if I do fall to an ambush, I know you two will still keep her safe..." She nods, finally agreeing with me, Hanako finally returns from Cerebro. "Oh, you're all still here... Umm, well the mutant you're looking for is a male, around twenty-five. His ability appears to be the power to communicate with machines, he also seems to be hyper-intelligent. Shouldn't be too hard to find him, he's an Australian." I nod as she finished her briefing. "Thanks Hana-chan, grab a headset just in case, keep an eye on us from the computers here and be ready to grab us the second we ask for retrieval, 'kay?" She smiles as my speech drops into the lingo that Katie normally is the only one to use and nods in response. "Stay safe sweety." _Will do, I made you a promise remember? _I wink at her as I say this telepathically to her and before she can respond Hiro has sent us to our destination.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter sixteen - Master of the Mechanical**

When we arrive at our target location we find ourself infron of a hospital. "Survivour, where are we?" I ask this over the headset, scanning my surroundings for other people as I do, seeing only one I assume this is the man we're looking for. "It's the Haiashi hospital, the spike was detected just outside, so your target may be across the street by now." I point out our target to the girls, now sure that who I've seen is exactly that. "Guess thats our guy. 'Starter, take to the sky and keep an eye on him, Bella' head around the building and come from the other side of the alley, I'll try to catch up with him and talk to the guy." The girls both nod as they move to follow out my orders and I head after the man that we were sent to recruit, as I cross the street I see a group of about five men cross the other end of the alley and hide behind the dumpsters there. "Hey you, could I have a word?" I call out to the man and as he turns I'm surprised to see that he is most definately Australian, what Hanako forgot to mention was that he's as black as the ace of spades. _Guess that slipped her mind..._ "What can I help ya with mate?"I notice he's speaking in english, so I decide to do the same, I point to the other end of the alley, having reached his side as he replied. "There's a couple of guys at the other end of the alley, waiting to ambush you." He looks confused at that. "Why would they wanna attack me?" I decide to show him that I'm a mutant, so he won't get offended at me calling him one. "Because you're one of us, and they hunt us." I coat my hand in my spore and hold it up for his visual inspection. "Careful, its toxic." I say as he reaches up to touch it, his hand pulls away as he hears this and I decide that the demonstration is over as I dissapate the spore. "That's way cooler than my power mate. How'd those fellas know I'm a mutant?" I look to the bin as I reply. "Same way we did, every mutant gives off a special type of 'mutant energy' that can be detected with the right technology, as I said before they hunt mutants."  
"So how'd you find me?"  
"I work with the Japanese faction of the X-men, we have our own copy of Cerebro, it allows our telepaths to find other mutants." He nods at this. "Ok, so what do you suggest we do about them?" He points to the bin as he asks this. In response I switch back to Japanese and speak through my earpiece "'Starter, get this guy back to the mansion, Bella' make sure none of those purifiers run out the other end of the alley. I'm going to deal with them.." He nods again as Azusa falls beside him and takes his hand after de-igniting. They than teleport back to Ops and Katie and I are left alone with the purifiers, who for some reason are still hiding. "Come on out boys, I already know you're there." I call down the alley to them and they step out of their hiding place and draw their swords, having seen me draw my own. There's six of them, not one has thought to turn and leave, they all move towards me and I see Katie block the alleys exit. "Stay there Belladonna." I whisper into my headset. The front two purifiers move foreward to attack, slashing in perfect syncronisation, side by side. With not enough space between them to do what I did in training I decide to coat my blade and deflect their attack, my spore latching itself to their blades and eating its way through them, leaving them unarmed. They fall to the back of the group as I chuckle at their situation. The next assailent decides to attack alone, I deflect his thrust to my side and, unseen to him, draw my second, shorter blade and send it through his gut as he passes me, the momentum of his attack forcing him not only to step past me but to step cleanly onto my blade. I see that one of the others has decided a retreat is beneficial, unfortunatly he's met by Katie who, while not as skilled as I am, is more than skilled enough to dispatch him. The two remaining men also try a syncronised attack on me, I decide to humour them and block both blades with one of my own, neither of my blades is coated at this point in time. As we find our blades locked, I feel the need to react in another way, by kicking one of them in the chest with a spore coated boot. The spore eats its way first through his uniform, then through his chest, leaving a hole momentarily before rapidly dissolving him completely. My final assailent looks aghast at the pile of dust that was once his ally and redoubles his attack, hitting me with a rapid succession of overhead strikes, forcing me to my knees even as I block him with crossed blades. _Enough of this_ I think to myself as I coat my swords once again in my spore, his next overhead is his last as his sword is caught by my spore and disintegrates in his hands, and the spore quickly moves on to them next, in minutes there's nothing left of him but more dust.

"Hana-chan, bring us home would you." That familiar pull at my waist once again and I find myself, still on my knees, in the mission room. I stand and sheath my blades, turning to the new member of our team. "I believe introductions are in order, I'm Kyle McArthur also called Nightshade." I indicate each of the girls as I introduce them individually "Azusa Nakano, also called Firestarter. Kaitlyn McArthur, also called Belladonna. And Hanako, also called Survivour." The man nods to each in turn as they're introduced. "My name's Bruce, Bruce Murray. My mutant mates used to call me The Mechanimystic, or Meckie for short." I nod to show I was listening to him. "Hiro, could you prepare the barracks for our new friend here, I would offer you a room upstairs but I havn't gotten around to setting it up yet." He smiles at this. "That's ok mate, it's better than livin on the street." This way mister Murray, the emergency floor lights will guide your path. Bruce look around excitedly, than starts muttering, almost to himself. "Who is that? Synthesised voice. Simulated emotional inflections. Could it be... no. Maybe. Have to ask. Is that an AI?" I nod in answer to his question. "This op center is equiped with an artificial intelligence." He nods, as though musing upon my response. "Interesting, will have to look into it further." I bristle a little at his off hand categorisation of the machine that helped save not only my life, but his too. " 'Its' name is Hiro.." I try not to let the anger out in my voice, but it doesn't work fully as a little seeps out, sounding slightly like mild frustration. "Sorry Kyle, Hiro. I ment no offence." He smiles sheepishly at me. "I'm a techie after all, I like machines. More than I like most people." He walks out of the room and follows the lights heading down the hall to the barracks. _I was going to offer to set up the upstairs room for him, but maybe he'd be more at home with a cot in the lab.._ Hanako giggles at me when I think this. "Sweety, you really shouldn't think things like that where people can hear them." I look to her with a grin as I finally lower my hood. "Maybe I wanted you to hear that." I walk over and kiss her softly before heading up to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

About an hour later the five of us are seated around the dinner table chatting, getting to know Bruce a little better, so far all I've learned is that he has an affinity and interest in computers and thats about all... "By the way Kyle, if you like, I could probably find a way to extend Hiro's reach to the above ground part of the house too. Only if you want me to that is.." I look to him when he says this. "I assumed that wasn't possible, I thought Forge would have done it if it was... Very well, if you think it can be done than make it so my friend. Also, if you like, take a look in the lab down there, there might be some toys you'll like.." He grins broadly. "Already did, when you were cookin', nice little set up. Was considering askin' Hiro to move my cot in there, just to feel a little more at home." Hanako graces us with one of her rare genuine laughs after he says this and I smile at the both of them. "Did I say somthin' funny?" _Poor Bruce looks so confused.._ "It's nothing mister Murray... sorry. It's just... K-Kyle made a-a similar... comment earlier. t-that you may be more at home in the lab... than up here or in the barracks.." I notice Hanako falling back on her old stutter, and trying to hide herself a little as she responds. _You ok Hana-chan?_ Her eyes flick up to me, but her head barely moves, and her hand finds its way up to the scarred side of her face. I notice from the corner of my eye that both the girls have seen her attempt to hide and are tactfully trying their hardest to ignore it. I'm grateful for that, any over-reaction would only escalate matters. _I-I'm fine, just a little... _Her thought drops out half way and I assume it's because she isn't sure how to finish it. "Bruce, would you like to see the entertainment room? It has quite a selection of movies, and I'm sure between it and the lab you could build yourself a nice TV too if you wanted to." He nods in agreement. "Sure, I'd love to mate, be good to check on the local news too, see whats what." I nod in understanding as he says this. "Kaitlyn. Could you show our guest to the entertainment room please."  
"Sure thing bro, this way mister Murray." He shakes his head a little at this. "Please, I'm the guest here not you guys, could you please all just use me first name." We all nod at this as he and Katie rise and head into the entertainment room. Azusa speaks up next. "I think I might go for a shower, I feel all dirty..." I chuckle at this. "Thats what happens when you fly through chimney smoke Azusa-chan." She pokes her tongue out at me as she heads upstairs for her shower. "So... Feel like telling me what that was about..?" I speak as softly as I dare, so as not to let anyone else hear, but she decides on an even more secure approach to conversation as she replies telepathically. _I- I don't know, I was talking to you guys, then suddenly.. After I laughed... I-it felt like he was staring at me... A-at m-m-my, my s-scars..._ She starts to sob quietly after thinking this and I stand quickly to get to her side, putting my arm around her as I kneel beside her and whisper in her ear. "Even if he was Hana-chan, there's nothing that can be done, people stare sometimes.. you know that as well as I do, but its ok. With him living with us, he'll get used to your scar, and mine.. And, being foreign, he might not have even cared, he may have just been looking at 'you' Hana-chan, not your burn..." She looks at me and I can't help but wipe a tear from her eye as she smiles hopefully. "You really don't think he was staring at... this?" She indicates the right side of her face as she says 'this' and I shake my head vehemently. "Nope, not at all. There are a lot more foreign people with scars like yours than there are here in Japan, lots more people go around setting things on fire over seas... He might be used to it already, I know it only took me about five seconds to grow accustomed to your scars, then I saw all of you. Not just your burns, but what's beneath..." She smiles a little wider as her face turns a bright scarlet at my words and she leans into me to rest our foreheads together. I close my eyes and bask in the mere presence of her, the sound of her breathing, the feeling of her breath on my face, her hair on my forehead, the smell of her shampoo, her scent giving off a tangible taste, sweet.. like citrus, orange maybe.. or tangerene. I smile broadly at her, the very sensation of her being here with me... "I..." My breath catches in my throat as I go to speak, I sigh gently and try again. "I.. I love you, Hana-chan..." I hold my breath, biting my lower lip as I await her response. What will she say, will she accept my affection, all of my feelings... Or will I be hit with the crushing rejection I've been dreading since I realised how deep my feelings truly go...


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter seventeen - Emotion Immortelle**

I feel Hanakos arms wrap around my neck as she starts to cry in ernest.. _Not the reaction I was expecting..._ I'm careful to guard this thought, if I've upset her already, I don't want to make it worse with flippant comments or thoughts.. I'm surprised when she sends a thought to me, being under the impression that we were talking physically now not mentally.. _I'm sorry Kyle, I don't mean to cry... But ever since my.. Accident. I've felt as though I'm useless, worthless, worthy of nothing.. Of no-one, and in only two days you opened me up, little by little. At first I thought "Oh he's just being friendly, he'll forget you by next week.." But then you kissed me in my apartment and I thought "Wow, maybe he might actually have feelings for you..." And now, just a week later you're telling me you love me, not only are you physically saying it, but, through your actions. I've felt nothing but love since I met you... _She decides to switch to words now, meaningful as they can be and with a sobbing voice and a tear streaked face she declares. "I love you Kyle, I love you more than I thought I would ever love anyone again..." I hug her when she says this. "Oh Hana-chan, when you started crying I thought I'd upset you, that you might be planning to reject me... I'm glad you didn't..." She looks aghast when I say this. "I'd never reject you!" Her words are delivered with such adamance that I have no inclination to disbeleive her at all. I kiss her softly. "Hanako, you've made me a very happy man... I'm glad I met you."  
"No Kyle." She shakes her head. "If we hadn't met, you'dve found someone else, I on the other hand may have finally given in to the feelings I have every year around the same day... Without you I may not have lived to see twenty..." She looks shamefaced at her virtual admition to suicidal tendencys, but it doesn't bother me, what matters to me is that I have her in my life, and I'll never let her leave it. I kiss her again, when she responds to this kiss I'm startled as she pushes me onto the floor and starts to kiss me a little more passionatly than she normally does. Before I know what's happening I find myself with her tongue in my mouth and her hand up my shirt. "Hanako..." I whisper, when she finally pulls back to take a breath. "Shouldn't we do this somewhere a little less exposed..." She giggles at this. "Scared to get caught?" A cheeky grin planted firmly on her face. "No." I reply. "But on the off chance we are caught, and it's one of the girls that catch us, I don't want to be responsible for giving my sister nightmares..." She looks mock offended as I say this. "What nightmares, I'm not that scary..." I smile at her joking behaviour, a very pleasent change to how she was mere minutes before. "No, your not. but the sight of a girl with their tongue down her brothers throat, or with my tongue down their throat. May be enough to scar her for life..." Hanako falls into a fit of laughter at my assessment of my concerns. "Ok then, in that case lets go up to our room..." She winks at me and I shake my head increduliously as we stand and head upstairs...


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter eighteen - The Pale Rider**

The next morning I awake to find myself sleeping without any clothing. Not only that, but there's an equally naked Hanako laying next to me as I sleep. I run my hand down her arm, not caring that it's her right arm because as I discovered last night, it has the same effect regardless. When my hand finally reaches hers, I interlock her fingers with mine and softly kiss her neck as I both hear and feel her shudder at the sensations now coursing through her side. "Morning Hana-chan." She giggles and turns to kiss me softly. "I could get used to waking up like this." She says playfully. "If you enjoy it my love than I will wake you with a kiss as often as I can..." She blushes deeply as I once again reiterate my true feelings for her. Her response is to kiss my nose and get up to go for a shower. I playfully whistle at her as she walks towards the door, her body totally bare. She giggles again as her face changes shade once again. "Don't you whistle at me, I'm not a dog mister.." I laugh at this, knowing it as the joke it is. I feign an apologetic attitude as I respond. "I'm sorry miss Hanako, I just felt like letting you know how sexy you are." I wink as I say this, and feel compelled to add. "It's not like I get much of a chance to tell you." She pokes her tongue out and playfully shakes her bottom at me as she goes into the bathroom. I decide to go make coffee and get started on breakfast, putting on a pair of pants I head to the kitchen. Suddenly there's a knock at the door. Surprised, and in the middle of cooking eggs for breakfast, I call out to Kaitlyn. "Hey Katie, could you get that, I'm a little busy.." I hear the pitter patter of her feet coming down the stairs. "I got it bro." I hear her voice as she greets our guest. As they head towards the kitchen I distinctly hear the second and third voices of Kurt and Peter. I turn as they enter the room. "Hey guys, want a coffee?" Collossus and Nightcrawler nod in response.  
"_Danke mein freund._"  
"_Spasibo tovarishch_"  
"Not a problem guys, I had a pot on already anyway." _Hana-chan, Peter and Kurt are here, just thought I'd let you know._ I smile as I recall what happened the last time Hanako was informed of visitors. _Thanks for the heads up babe, I'll be down in a second anyway._  
_'Kay, I've brewed a cup of tea for you, your favourite flavour. _I smile as I visualise her reaction. my thoughts are suddenly interrupted by Kurt. "_Mein freund,_ your eggs are burning." I gasp. "Oh crap, thanks Kurt." I take the eggs off the pan, putting them on a plate alongside some toast. "So what brings the two of you here so early, I assume Logan couldn't make it."  
"_Da_ he is teaching a class, I am here mainly as a courtesy. My message could have been sent via email, but it might have taken too long and it's an important message." I look confused at this. "What's the message?" His face turns from amicable to grim in a moment. "The fourth horseman has been recruited in Prague." I look to him in shock. "What? Who is it, what's their ability?" He raises his hands to stem the flow of questions and takes the coffee from my extended hand. I give the second cup to Kurt, a third to Katie and set aside a cup of tea for Hanako. "The mutant in question is Pietro Maximoff... I'm sure, given your seemingly extensive knowledge of the X-men, you know who he is..?" I nod, taking a sip from my own cup of coffee. "Sure, thats Quicksilver right?" He nods. "_Da._ I guess you know his ability..?" I nod again in response and I notice Hanako coming down the stairs. "Hey Hana-chan, your breakfast is on the table. Better move fast, your tea's getting cold." I chuckle as she quickens her pace to get to her tea. suddenly another knock on the door. "I'll get it." Katie pipes up, darting to the door to open it again. I hear her bubbly greeting from the kitchen; "Oh, hey Proffessor Grey, Proffessors Wagner & Rasputin are in the kitchen already.." I hear Pheonix chuckle at Katies formality. "Please Kaitlyn, I've told you many a time to call me Jean, or Pheonix if you prefer." I can tell by Katies tone that her face has dropped a little. "Sorry proffe- I-I mean... Jean.." As they enter the kitchen I see the smile on Jeans face. "Its quite alright Katie, you mentioned Peter and Kurt are here." She looks around the room as she says this. "What brings the two of you here?" I interject to shorten the conversation by a few minutes. "Apocalypse has his fourth, its Quicksilver..." She cringes at my comment. "Thats not good..."  
"Indeed not _tovarishch._" Hanako looks up at this. "Why, What's so bad about Quicksilver?" I look to her to respond. "Its more the fact that, with four horsemen, Apocalypse has enough mutant energy to break clear of the negative zone.. although Quicksilver can be a pain, what with super speed, its like fighting a hyperactive bee on crack." She giggles at this and Katie snorts into her coffee. "That was a bit random, don't you think bro?" I shrug in response. "Maybe, but not exactly inaccurate." I look to the Pheonix. "What do you suggest we do about this Jean?"  
"We have little choice, we have to stop the horsemen before they free their master."  
"_Da_ but we first must figure out where the four plan to conviene in order to release him.." I nod at this, agreeing with the sentiment. "Peter's right, if we know where they're planning to meet we can co-ordinate with the other X-man teams and ambush them, maybe capture them and keep them seperated..." An unexpected addition to the conversation is supplied in the form of Hiro. A good plan Kyle, but how do you plan to hold them and keep them apart? "Well, I hadn't thought of that yet.. I see Bruce has given you those upgrades he mentioned." Indeed, the man does not seem to sleep. I do have a similar but alternative suggestion, with the help of Bruces mind and the Pheonixs ability, a way could be found to reverse the "Horsemanning" proccess. Hanako giggles quietly at this, I seem to be the only one who hears her. _You've started something babe. _I smile, recalling her comment about me using the word horseman as a verb. _So it would seem..._ "If you think that between the three of you it can be done Hiro, than make it so..." Very well sir.

With that, Jean heads down to the lab to meet Bruce.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter nineteen - To catch a horseman...**

"Hana-chan. I need you in cerebro, try to find and keep an eye on War. Don't even bother trying to find the others, it'll take too long if you don't know their mental signatures... Just focus on War." She nods in response. "You got it sweety." I turn to Kurt and Peter to request something of them and notice Kurt looking rather distant. "Kurt, you ok?" He looks at me. "_Es tut mir leid mein freund, _I am needed elsewhere at the moment, I will return soon." With that he teleports out of the building, I look to Peter. "Colossus, could I trouble you to give the girls a training session in the danger room, they could do with one." He nods. "No trouble at all _tovarisch_, I could use a workout.." as he leaves with Katie and Azusa (who managed to crawl her way down half way through the conversation.) Kurt suddenly reappears in the room, causing me to start in surprise not at his appearance more so because of the man he has with him. For slung over Kurts shoulder, holding tightly lest he fall, is none other than Charles Xavier himself. Kurt placed professor Xavier into one of the chairs before returning to his unfinished coffee. "A pleasure to finally meet you Kyle. As I'm sure you already know, I am Charles Xavier, headmaster of the school for gifted youngsters, and founder of the X-men." I nod as he introduces himself. "I'm aware of who you are sir, and the pleasure is mine. Kyle McArthur, unproclamed leader of the Japanese faction of the X-men." I step foreward to shake his hand. As he returns the gesture he announces his reasons for appearing. "Jean contacted me with the news of Pietro Maximoff, I decided to join you here in an attempt to liase with the other teams, just to get them comfortable following your orders." I look at him in surprise at this. "Why are they following my orders?" He laughs at my shock. "Because my friend, it's your house, you are the only one who has fought one of these four horsemen, and one of the four were taken from your own ranks. Therefore this is, as they say, your party..." I nod, conceding his point. "Fair enough sir, in that case. Kurt, when you finish your coffee, would you be so kind as to retreive Logan, Ororo, Scott and... Emma if you can find her." He nods. "Very well _mein freund_, it will be done." As an afterthought I mention to proffessor Xavier. "Also, someone should contact Erik, inform him of what has become of Pietro, the man is his son after all." Charles nods. "I've already taken care of that, He's on his way here with Mystique and Cain Marko." I smile at this. "Good, we could use the muscle. Come, I'll introduce you to my team. Hiro, send up a wheelchair would you." Certainly sir. Suddenly a wheelchair appears directly beside Charles. He hums thoughtfully at this. "Hmm, helpful. Might need to get an AI installed at the school." I nod at this. "Hiro's been invaluable, I'm glad Forge put him in when the base was installed." I lead the way to the elevator that heads downstairs, as Charles enters the elevator I speak again. "Be warned, our resident telepath.. Mine, not yours. She has a burn on her face, it can be a bit of a shock, but try not to stare. She knows it's there, she doesn't need reminding." He nods. "Yes I'm well aware of miss Ibarazaki's condition, as well as her aversion to her last name. I gleaned your memorys of her, the less personal ones, when I arived. She must be on your mind a fair bit..." I smile, conceding the fact that Hanako spends a lot of time at the forefront of my thoughts. "She is, I love her dearly. I don't know what I would be like without her, I was quite withdrawn myself at my old school. She acts as though she's the lucky one, but truth be told I would be quite alone without her..." As I say this the elevator doors open to the bases main hall. "The first stop will be the lab, you can meet our newest member." We enter the lab as I say this and I call out. "Bruce, Jean. Are you still in here?" They come out from behind the large sheet of plywood they were using for a pinboard. "Who's that mate?" Bruce seems curious at the new person in his lab. "Proffessor, I'd like to introduce you to Bruce Murray, also called The Mechanimystic. Bruce, this is Charles Xavier. He's the founder of the X-men." Bruce steps foreward. "Oh, nice to meet ya sir." Much as he tries, Bruce can't entirly drop his Australian mannerisms. "This is the room where most of our tech is built, so far that encompasses three swords and not much else, but we're hoping that Bruce, Jean and Hiro can find a way to reverse the Horsemanning process, before we go up against them again." I gesture back towards the door we entered through. "Now, if you would like to join me in the Danger rooms observatory, you can see our resident firestarter in action." With that we enter a small door beside the danger room, with a series of computer screens hooked up to the cameras in the danger room. "That's actually her codename; Firestarter, her real name is Azusa Nakano. You'll also notice my sister Kaitlyn, codename Belladonna. Her abilities are the same as mine, hence the similar codename, I'm sure you already know my ability and codename." He nods. "Yes Nightshade, Jean speaks very highly of you. I'm surprised to see how well these two fight together. Most pyrokinetics don't like to fight in teams." I chuckle at this. "Azusa's different, she and Katie have a special bond, if you catch my drift." It's only then that I realise we've been speaking Japanese the entire conversation. "Your Japanese is flawless Professor." He chuckles at this. "What did you expect, I am a telepath."  
"True, come on, I'll show you our Cerebro. You can meet the last member of our little ragtag team." I lead the way to the end of the hall and enter first. "Hana-chan, there's someone I'd like you to meet." As she turns Charles starts to speak. "Good day to you Hanako. My name's Charles Xavier, I'm pleased to meet you. I hear you make quite the fine cup of tea, also that you're quite adept at science." I chuckle at that _Jean's been talking up her star pupil_ Charles and Hanako both hear me, she giggles and he chuckles when they hear it. "Sorry babe, didn't mean for that to be heard." She smiles at the two of us. "That's ok sweety, I doubt the proffessor would have been blocked out even if you tried." He shakes his head at her assumtion. "On the contrary, I try to avoid listening in on people, when they try to block me I back off as far as I can. Any luck on finding the Horsemen yet?" She shakes her head. "No sir, I can't find War... And I have no hope of finding the other three, I don't know their mental patterns." He raises an eyebrow at this. "The horsemen have a specific protection put in place, if you don't know what your looking for, it can't be found."  
"But surely you know the mental pattern of your friend, what was her name... Rebecca?" I step foreward to reply before Hanako gets the chance. "The mental pattern of the horsemen are different to that of their original states of being. For example Hana-chan can't just look for Gambit to find War, it has to be War specifically that she looks for." Charles nods his understanding. Kyle, sir. Mister Wagner has arived with the group you asked him to find. "Excellent, shall we go greet them Proffessor?" He nods and wheels himself back to the elevator.

When we get to the kitchen we find Kurt, Logan, Emma, Scott and Ororo waiting for us. "Logan, good to see you again. To the rest of you I'm Kyle McArthur, this is my home and I have called you here for your assistance in this Apocalypse issue." Scott steps foreward as the groups spokesman. "Nice to meet you I'm Scott Summers, also called Cyclops. This is Ororo Munroe also called Storm, Emma Frost also known as the White Queen." She steps foreward at this. "But these days I prefer Emma, or if you feel more comfortable with my full name by all means use that." I nod to each person as Scott introduces them. "For the moment all I need you for is to help train my crew to fight better, Scott, Logan. I'll leave that job to you two and Pete. Emma, if you would be so kind to releave our resident telepath in our Cerebro, you'll need her to show you the mental pattern you're looking for." She nods and leaves as I say this. "Ororo, if you could lend assistance wherever, Jean is currently in the lab attempting to find a way to reverse the Horsemanning process, or you could help train the girls, whichever. Truth be told I only called on you because I know how well you work with the boys when in the field, we'll need that." They all nod and head downstairs, Charles speaks up as the 'original' X-men go off to follow out my orders. "I must say Kyle, I can see why you run this group. You, much like Scott, exhude confidence and leadership." I nod as he says this. "Maybe, but it's not intentional. I just figure, someone's got to do it.. So professor, give me the run down on Apocalypse, can he be destroyed?" Charles ponders this for a while before he replies. "To my knowledge no, but I've never met one with your powers before, if anyone can it would be you. Or your Cameleopath girlfriend. I'm surprised, given she's a telepath, that Jean hasn't told you of the mental link that can be set up between two people. It can have its uses."  
"She mentioned it, I was all for it but Hanako said she needed to think about it and I didn't want to press the issue, I don't think she wants me to feel how she felt for the past nine years." He nods. "I'm sure it won't take her long to do it, perhaps you should tell her that her trauma will not become yours in entirety when it occurs." I raise my eyebrow. "But that would be a lie wouldn't it?" He shakes his head. "No, she was a child when she experienced it, and you already know it has occured, you will be prepaired for the pain you'll feel when she opens up to you, far more than she was when she experienced it." I nod, surprised that I didn't think of that already. "Of course, that makes a lot of sense. I'll talk to her tonight, thanks proffessor." He waves off my thanks and suddenly there's a knock on the door, the third of the day.

When I open the door I'm surprised to find a well dressed elderly gentleman, a blue skinned woman wearing white spandex... And a brick wall. Not literally, but for all outward appearances he may as well have been. "You must be mister Lehnsherr, Mystique and mister Marko. Please, come in." Poor Jugernaught has to duck his head to enter the door. "Thank you young man, now tell me, what has become of that fool of a son of mine?" I lead them into the kitchen and Charles answers his question for me. "I have heard news that he's become a horseman of Apocalypse Erik. The fourth to be exact so we'll have to deal with the man himself soon enough." Erik sighs as he hears this. "Haven't we killed that fool yet?" Charles shakes his head. "We haven't had the means, until now..." Erik raises an eyebrow at this. "What new means have we come across old friend?" Charles tilts his head towards me. Erik looks at me and speaks again to Charles. "The boy?" Xavier nods. "Him and his team yes." Erik scoffs. "What makes them so much more special than your star team, your golden boys?" I walk over as he says this _I'm going to regret this, tables are expensive in Japan..._ "This." Is all I say, coating my hand in a corrosive form of my spore and placing it on the table, smiling at Eriks shocked face as it desintegrates entirely. "And if that doesn't work, there's a girl on his team that can replicate any mutants ability just by touching them, last I checked Apocalypse is a mutant." Erik looks at Charles in surprise. "You want to make another Apocalypse and let the two of them fight over the Earth?" Xavier smiles at his comment. "No, the girl in question wouldn't want Earth if you gave it to her on a silver platter. She will, however fight for him to her last breath." He points to me as he says this. "I must say mister Lehnsherr, I'm surprised that Pyro isn't with you." He looks up at me. "You seem to have a fair amout of knowledge young man.. Pyro had a prior engagement and hence could not make it, but for protection Mystique and mister Marko are more than sufficient, not that I can't protect myself."


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter twenty - The link**

Hanako meets me on the way up to my room after I decide to leave the four in the kitchen to get better aquainted. "Hey Hana-chan, how are you feeling sweety?" She smiles as I lean in to kiss her on the cheek. "I'm fine, Emma took over for me on Cerebro, what made you call her in by the way?"  
"I figured that between you, her and the proffessor you could take half day shifts and keep an eye out for War as much as possible without killing yourselves. The proffessor and I were talking and he mentioned that link thing that Jean told us about, the one that two people can do to show devotion & dedecation to each other..." She looks a little concerned as I bring this up. "Kyle, you're not going to push this are you... I said I needed some time to think about it. It's not that I don't want you in here baby I do, I just have a couple of concerns that I need to think out first.." She places a hand to the side of her head when she says 'in here' and I take her hand in mine as I reply. "I know sweetheart, and I know what one of your main concerns may be, that's what Charles and I were talking about when he mentioned it, you're worried I won't be able to cope with everything you've taken over the years... But what he wanted me to mention is that I'm better prepared in the fact that I know whats to come, or I have some small idea at least. You suffered in your past, and you weren't expecting it. And while I 'will' feel your suffering, it won't be to the degree that you did, I'll know it's coming." A tear falls to the ground as I finish speaking and I realise that my speech has brought her to tears. "It's not you coping that I'm worried about Kyle..."  
"Than what?"  
"Forget it..."  
"Hana-chan, I-"  
"I said forget it Kyle!" With that she turns and storms off, leaving me standing bewildered in the hall.

**KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK** my hand wraps on the door of the Danger room. I am sorry sir, but there is still a simulation in session. "I know Hiro, I just need to talk to Kaitlyn in private, could you send her to my room ASAP please?" Certainly sir, as soon as the current program has run its course she will be there. "Uhh, when I say send her, I ment tell her to meet me there not teleport her there..." Of course sir, though teleporting would be faster.. "It's not 'that' urgent, or I'd suspend the session.." Ah, how silly of me sir of course you would.

Ten minutes later I was laying on my bed and a knock sounded on the door. "Enter." Kaitlyn walked in, looking like a student that just got called in to the headmasters office. "Relax sis, you look like you're expecting me to tell you off for something." She smiles at this, knowing it's true. "Well you've been throwing all this training at me, then suddenly you need to see me 'ASAP' what else was I ment to think bro?" I laugh. _She has a point_ "No sis, nothing to do with that, I actually needed your advice." This piques her interest, there aren't many things she knows more about than me, even fewer that I'm willing to admit I know less about. "Oh? What did you need advice on?" I sigh, straight to the point than. "I need your help with Hana-chan, for some reason she seems unwilling to let me in on her past, I thought it was because..." And for the next five minutes I explain all to Kaitlyn, the mental link Jean told us about, Hanako's reaction to it, my theories and her reaction to them and proffessor Xaviers oppinions on the matter. "So what do you think sis, what've I done wrong here, I feel like I've stepped on a metaphorical land mine and I can't even 'find' the pieces, much less pick them up.." She shakes her head in a slightly condecending (not to mention irritating) way. "Kyle, you havn't done anything 'wrong' there's just something you didn't consider.. Hana-chan isn't worried you can't handle her past, she's worried about what you might think of her after seeing it..." I look surprised at her. "But that's rediculous, I love her, she knows that!" Katie shrugs. "Maybe a small part of her doubts the extent of that love, thinks there's a part of you that would reject her if it saw all of her..." I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. "So how the hell do I convince her she's wrong?" Kaitlyn looks at me enigmatically. "Is she?" and before I can answer she gets up and leaves, leaving me to ponder her question. An internal debate roaring up inside me. _Of course she's wrong, I love Hanako with all my heart.._  
_But is there not a part of you that might love her less if you knew something bad about her?_  
_No there's not, what kind of dumb ass question is that!_  
_The kind that you deem important enough to ask, obviously._  
_Shut up, she's wrong and so are you!_  
_But what would you do if your precious Hanako were, say, a murderer?_  
_But she isn't._  
_But if she were..?_  
_Than she had a good reason for doing it!_  
_What if she's really a serial killer?_  
_Oh that's a stretch, your scraping at straws for an argument now.._  
_What if she's in to kink?_  
_That's just dumb, so what if she is?_  
_Ok thats a good point even I agree there, but what if..._  
_ENOUGH! I already know I love her no matter what horrors her past may hold!_ I stand and head to the door to search for Hanako, when I open the door I find ther professor seated on the other side of it. "I must say Kyle, I've never been thrown so forcefully from someones mind before."  
"Wait that was you I was arguing with in there? But it sounded exactly like me.."  
"That was the point my friend, I wanted you to think you were talking to yourself, to think my arguements were really yours to see if it would shake your resolve. The fact that it didn't means that you have something very important to go tell your dear Hanako." I nod in response to his statement and rush past him, careful not to knock him over.

I finally find her after ten minutes of searching. "There you are Hanako, I've been looking for you." She looks up at me, surprised. "Why? wha- mhmph" I cut her question off mid word by kissing her more passionatly than ever. "I love you, Hanako. All of you, you know that, right?" She raises an eyebrow before replying. "I do.. you've told me before kyle.."  
"Than why don't you believe it?"  
"What do you mean? Of course I believe it.."  
"No you don't, if you did than you wouldn't be worried I'd reject you after the link, after I see your past, what you havn't already told me.. Or something in it you havn't mentioned, or havn't been able to mention, a feeling or a thought... something. But what you don't seem to understand is that I love you no matter what. You're my everything Hanako, and... It kinda hurts a little to think you think so little of me..." She looks shocked when I say this. "No, Kyle it isn't that I have a low opinion of you... I-it's just... It's just that... ItsjustthatIhatemyselfsowhyshouldyoubeanydifferent ?" Her words come out as a blur and I barely hear them, but one of the benefits of having a super hyperactive kid sister; ya pick up a few things, like how to talk and listen at warp speed. "Hanako!" I pull her face up gently to meet her eyes with mine. "Look, you can hate yourself all you want, I can't stop you from doing that. But don't you ever.. ever, accuse me of hating you. Of even being capable of hating you, you got that?!" Her eyes widen with shock as I practically demand a response from her, I let her go so she can move her head and she nods slowly before collapsing into my arms and dissolving into tears.

That night Hanako is resting against me when, just as I'm about to fall asleep she stirrs with a nightmare. "No... p-please no, don't.. don't take him, not him... take me instead, please..." She wakes, sitting bolt upwright with tears in her eyes, I sit beside her and pull her in to a hug. "Hey its ok Hana-chan, I'm still here.. Everythings alright." She puts her arms around me and cries into my shoulder. "Oh Kyle, I was so scared."  
"It's ok sweety it was just a nightmare..."  
"But it was so real, Kyle... I was face to face with a horseman and he... he.."  
"Threatened me?"  
"Yes, he had you by the throat and he was threatening to snap your neck, but he wouldn't tell me what to do to make him stop Kyle I was so scared for you." A fresh fit of tears burst through and I started to run my hand through her silken hair. "Hanako, you're forgetting one important thing. That situation would never occur, because if a Horseman did have his hand wrapped around my throat I would just melt it off..." Her crying subsided as she looked at me sheepishly, slightly ashamed at her own memory lapse. "Oh, right... I forgot you could do that.." I smile at her and kiss her on the forehead. "Come now sweetheart, go back to sleep.." She looks at me as if arguing something with herself. Than, as though making her mind up, she nods decisively and say to me. "Kyle, I think that tomorrow, we should do the mental link thing that Jean told us about... I-I mean, i-if you still... s-still want to..." My face lights up, I can feel it, and I don't care in the slightest. "Of course Hana-chan, of course I still want to, now get some rest.." She falls asleep in my arms that night, I fall moments after.

Next morning I wake to an empty bed, as I make my way down the stairs my enhanced hearing picks up on Hanako, humming in the kitchen. It also detects the buzz of conversation in the entertainment room, it seems I am one of the last to rise. As I enter the entertainment room I see Pete, Logan and Scott chatting over the morning news (nothing interesting, just some crap about a skateboarding bird or something like that.) "Hey guys, everyone else asleep?" Scott looks at me as I speak. "Not everyone, Hanako's in the kitchen and Jean's still in the lab with the insomniac. I think I heard Magneto talking in the kitchen too, you might want to go check." I nod and as I enter the kitchen I notice not only Hanako and Erik, but Charles as well. "Hello all, having fun?" I ask this because there's a chess board positioned between the three of them, Charles and Erik are playing while Hanako watches. "Kyle, you should come watch these guys they're incredible chess players." I smile as her admiration shines through in her voice. "Sounds like the two of you have a fan proffessers." Xavier chuckles. "Yes, she joined us about five minutes ago." Erik looks at me. "Please don't call me Proffessor, I'm not a teacher."  
"Sorry sir, it was just an assumtion." He nods at my comment before returning to the board. "Who's winning?" I whisper to Hanako, trying not to disrupt the game. "Mr. Lehnsherr is winning at the moment, but I think the proffessor is about to turn the tide here." She points to the proffessors hand as she says this and I look to the board just in time to see the proffessor move a pawn to the back of the board, giving himself a second queen, putting Eriks king in check. Eriks only response is to move the king into a position that will lead to a checkmate, the proffessor has a queen in the back row, one two rows down and moves his rook into the row between the two putting Erik in checkmate. "Checkmate old friend." I release the breath I didn't realise I was holding. "Wow, that was tense.. so, coffee anyone?" Hanako shakes her head. "No thanks babe, I've got a tea already... made one for proffessor Xavier too." Magneto stands up and turns to me. "I'll take that cup of coffee, I'll be back in a moment.. old body, small organs, if you catch my drift." I laugh at his subtle attempt to hide his destination. "Alright, it'll be ready by the time you come back from the toilet, you know where it is?" He nods. I head over to the coffee maker and put a pot on to brew. "So, the girls are still sleeping then?"  
"Ororo is, and your team of course, Pete, Scott and Logan wore them out. Emma is back in cerebro, she releaved me about half an hour ago, I was just about to get some rest actually." I nod, sitting at the table with the two of them, setting up a game of chess with Hanako _I see Hiro replaced the table, must remember to thank him for that_. "So any luck finding War?" He shakes his head. "None, I have a feeling that they are still in Japan, but where is unknown to me.."  
"Hmm, maybe we should scour the local warehouses and such to see if there's anything of interest in them."  
"Might be an appropriate reaction, I'd start in Saitama, a lot seems to be happening there." I nod. _He's right about that._ I think to Hanako, eliciting a small giggle from her. "S-sir, I-I mean... Proffessor Xavier..." He looks at her, I notice he looks into her eyes not at her scars.. "Yes Hanako?"  
"U-umm, Kyle and I were wondering... A-about that.. m-mental link thing..." He nods. "Ok, what exactly did you want to know?" I step into the conversation at his question. "Mainly how its done, but also if there's any dangers to it.."  
"A fair question, as to the first part, it's simple enough. Just hold hands and try to open your mind as much as possible. The second part of the question is a little difficult to answer, there's no danger to linking your minds, but if you aren't protected you could be taken by a skilled telepath. Not to worry though, with Jean, Emma and myself here, you'll be as safe as houses." I nod with a relieved smile. "Good, I was a little worried about that, so could we do this now, or..?" He shrugs. "I don't see why not, it won't take much more than five minutes." _What do you say Hana-chan? _I look to her with a smile. _Sure, we can do it now if you like..._ With that response we hold hands across the table and do as the proffessor bade us to.

It took a little longer than the proffessor said it would, maybe Hanako was still a little hesetant.. Anyway, it took about fifteen minutes. I reach up when its done and wipe a tear from my eye with one hand and one from Hanako's eye with the other.. "Hanako... You ok?" She looks at me and smiles. "I was wondering how you got that scar." She giggles when she says this and I smile at her joke. "And you were worried about doing this." I kiss her hand and stand to sit beside her. She leans into me as I put my arm around her. "Yeah, but I'm glad it was for nothing.." I look to her. "You really think I'd give up someone as amazing as you, and why exactly? which of these memories was the one that worried you..?" She looks back at me and kisses my chin before whispering in my ear. "Fifth grade, Tanabata.. the festival at my school..." I close my eyes and search for the memory she mentions, finding it I'm surprised to find her curled in a ball in the park by her school, three boys surround her, kicking her and throwing rocks at her.. I feel my anger rising and do nothing to suppress it. But my anger is short lived as the boys tire of beating her and move away. The Hanako in the memory stands slowly, tears of hatred in her eyes.. _I've never seen her look at anyone like that._ She picks up a nearby stick and a nearby rock, throwing the rock to get the nearest boys attention, it hits him square in the back of the head. the other two boys advance on her again and she raises her stick, swinging first at one boy than the other. She's deliberatly grabbed a stick with a sharp point coming out of one end, enough to make the boys bleed, enough to scar, but not to kill. She then hits them in the face over and over and over, careful as to where she hits them, leaving them with wounds that, while superficial, will leave them hideously disfigured for life.. "Well, that was an interesting memory..." I look to Hanako and am not surprised to see tears in her eyes, she seems concerned still that I'll regect her. "If you ask me, they got no less than they deserved..." The darkness that is my anger seeps into my voice once more as I say this and Hanako, rather than reacting with concern or fear, smiles and hugs me tightly. "I love you Hana-chan, and no fifth grade bullies are going to change that."


End file.
